“Why, to one Juniper Graves, a servant of Mr Frank Oldfield’s. He chose to take upon himself to have his letters from England directed to the care of my uncle, and this is one of the envelopes.”
“And where is he? Can you tell me where I can find him?” cried the digger, in great excitement.
“I’m afraid you’ll not find him at all, my friend,” replied the merchant, “for he left the colony in the Sabrina for England ten days ago.”
The effect of this announcement on the poor man was tremendous. He uttered a violent imprecation, stamped furiously on the ground, while he ground his teeth together. Then he sat down, and covered his face with his hands in mute despair.
“I fear there has been some foul play,” said Mr Oliphant to his nephew.
“Foul play!” cried the unfortunate digger, starting up furiously. “I’ll tell you what it is. Yon rascal’s been and robbed me of all as I got by my hard labour; and now he’s got clean off. But I’ll follow him, and have the law of him, if I work my passage home for it.”
“I’ve always had a suspicion that the fellow had not come honestly by his gains,” said Hubert.
“And why didn’t you stop him? Why didn’t you have him taken up on suspicion?” exclaimed the other bitterly.
“I had no grounds for doing so,” replied Hubert. “He might have come honestly by his money for anything I knew to the contrary. There was nothing to show that he had not been successful, as many other diggers have been.”
“Successful!” cried the poor man. “Ay, he’s been successful in making a precious fool of me.”