“Ah! there’s the goldsmith himself,” exclaimed the Pilot, pressing through the throng in the garden. “How d’you do, sir? I have to thank you, on behalf of my dar’ter and myself.” He gripped the goldsmith’s hand, and almost wrung it off.
“That’s all right,” said Tresco. “Yes, that’s all right. I couldn’t stand by and see an innocent man murdered. Certainly not.” Here he got his hand free, and proffered it to Scarlett, who grasped it with a warmth which quite equalled the Pilot’s.
“Tresco,” said Jack, looking straight into the goldsmith’s face, “you have accumulated against me a debt I can never pay.”
“I don’t know,” replied the goldsmith, laughing; “I’m not so sure of that. Sometimes Justice miscarries. How about that kaka nugget? When you’ve explained that, I shall feel I was justified in saving you from the hand of the Law.”
Jack laughed too. “You dog! You know the facts as well as I do. Moonlight took a fancy to the piece of gold and offered a good price, which the Jew took. I bought it from my mate. That point is perfectly clear. But I see you’ve got your swag on your back: your days in Timber Town are numbered.”
“That’s so,” said Tresco.
“I can only say this,” continued Jack: “if ever you are in a tight place, which God forbid, I hope I shall be near to help you out of it; if I am not, wire to me—though I am at the end of the earth I will come to your help.”
Tresco smiled. “Yes,” he said, “you’re going to be married—you look on everything through coloured glasses: you are prepared to promise anything. You are going to the altar. And that’s why we’ve come here.” He had taken the little velvet case from his pocket. “As you’ll be wanting something in this line”—he opened the case and displayed the wedding-ring—“I have made this out of a piece of Bush-Robin gold, and on behalf of Bill and myself I present it to you with our best wishes for a long and happy life.”
Jack took the gift, and drew a feigned sigh. He knew the meaning of such a present from such givers. He looked at the ring: he looked at the assembled diggers.
“After this, I guess, I shall have to get married,” he said. “I don’t see any way out of it. Do you, Pilot?”