The official quarters of the township, where public business was transacted, was known as the Government Camp. In this camp, which was laid out upon the slope of a hill, were situated the Magistrate's Court, the buildings in which the mounted troopers lodged, where the gold escort was made up, where miners' disputes were adjusted, and where miners paid their yearly sovereign for miners' rights, which gave lawful sanction to their delving for the precious metal and appropriating the treasure they extracted from the soil. There were swells in the Government Camp, members of good families in the old country, for whom something in the shape of official employment had to be found. It is pleasant to be able to record that there were few sinecures among these employments, most of the holders having to do something in the shape of work for their salaries. It was when Basil had served on the staff of the Princetown Argus for a space of six months, and had saved during that period a matter of two hundred pounds, that a new Goldfields' Warden made his appearance at the Government Camp. The name of this gentleman was Majoribanks, and when we presently part with him he will play no further part in our story; but it will be seen that the small rôle he fills in it is sufficiently pregnant.
Mr. Majoribanks was "a new chum" in the colony. Arriving in the capital with high credentials, the influence of his connections provided him almost immediately with a berth to which a good salary, with pickings, was attached. The position of Goldfields' Warden on Princetown was vacant, and he was appointed to it. His special fitness for the office need not here be discussed. Many members of good families in England, whose wild ways rendered desirable their removal to another sphere, developed faculties in Australia which elevated them into respectable members of society, which they certainly would not have been had they remained in the old world, surrounded by temptations. Mr. Majoribanks was not a bad fellow at bottom, and it was a fortunate day for him and his family when they exchanged farewell greetings.
There were not many gentlemen--in Mr. Majoribanks' understanding of the term--in Princetown, and when the new Goldfields' Warden came in contact with Basil, he recognised the superior metal in the hero of our story. The casual acquaintance they formed ripened into intimacy, and they met often in Mr. Majoribanks' quarters and passed many a pleasant hour together.
"Come and have a smoke this evening," said Mr. Majoribanks to Basil one Saturday afternoon.
Saturday was the only day in the week which Basil could call his own, and he was glad of the invitation and accepted it. Mr. Majoribanks knew Basil only, as others knew him, by the name of Basil and had not taken the trouble to inquire whether it was a surname. So the two gentlemen sat in Mr. Majoribanks' snug quarters on this particular Saturday, and discussed a dainty little meal, cooked in capital style by the Goldfields' Warden's Chinese cook. The meal finished, they adjourned to the verandah, and lit their cigars.
They had much in common; they had travelled over familiar country in Europe and they compared notes, recalling experiences of old times which in their likeness to each other drew them closer together.
"Upon my soul," remarked Mr. Majoribanks, "it is an exceedingly pleasant thing to find one's self in the company of a gentleman. It makes banishment endurable. Do you ever think of returning to England?"
"One day, perhaps," replied Basil.
"I hope we shall meet there," said Mr. Majoribanks. "Is it allowable to ask what brought you out to the goldfields?"
"I lost my fortune," said Basil, "and not knowing what to turn my hand to came to Australia to make another."