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VIII.

The next morning, after a long and refreshing sleep, assisted by a plunge in the stream below the house, and a breakfast resembling his meal of the night before, Jack set about the preparations for a journey. He had resolved to make for the nearest large town, that of Auckland, and then try to obtain some explanation as to the flight of the Farrell family from Glenfern. Putting on his thickest boots and that suit of his clothes most suitable for journeying in when a change could not be carried, he made up a light package of the most substantial and portable articles of food he could find, and started off. As he left the house he whistled to Rej, who with her pups was basking in the garden. She bounded to his side, and accompanied him across the home-paddock, but then, with mute apologies of her tail, whined, and ran back to her unhappy howling children. Jack looked at her wistfully, but recognized the divine mother-feeling in the poor brute, and desisted from trying to induce her to follow him. He gained the high road, and plodded steadily onwards, trying not to ask himself why the road was untravelled, why no ruts were visible in its floor of clay and stone. The larger bridges were firm and stable, but many of those across page 54the smaller streams had been washed away, so that it was necessary to ford the waters carefully, and to test the unknown depths with a pole carefully prodded in advance of the wader. Some rivers had to be crossed by swimming, but these were few, and of no great width, so that there was little difficulty, and they held no danger for a young and athletic man. Now and then he passed a clearing and saw the white houses of the settlers among the trees of the homestead, but, after visiting one or two of these, and finding them as deserted as Glenfern, he gave up the idea of leaving the road any more, and passed the smokeless chimneys with a feeling of solemnity and awe. He tried to stifle the mental questioner continually whispering "Why? Why?" to him, but it was almost impossible.

At intervals he would come upon small herds of startled cattle. Sometimes they resented his approach, but more often they would dash away like frightened hares towards the nearest cover. Luckily the weather was mild and the nights warm, so that he had no inclemency of the season to add to his trouble, and he would rest at night on a bed of fern with a fire to cheer him, and his pipe as a companion.

After some days there broke on his sight the lovely vision of Auckland, and a shout of joy went up from his lips as he saw that from its distant chimnies blue smoke was curling upward into the clear air. He almost wept with gladness to recognize the near presence of human beings, and pushed on with springing steps, eager again to become one of those that throng the busy streets. But the noon-day sun and his excitement heated him so much that he was obliged to turn aside under the shade of some large trees that overhung a woodland garden. Entering the shadow, he removed the boots from his page 55swollen feet, and went to the top of a little knoll to look around. Thence he saw, seated a few paces from him, the figure of a youth clad in grey trousers and jacket, sitting at the foot of a tree, reading.

"My boy—" said Jack.

Before he could add another word, the supposed boy leaped to his feet with a succession of piercing shrieks, such as never came from masculine lips, and, looking at him with a glance of terror, fled down the hill. As Jack looked at the long plaited tail of hair swinging as she ran along, and recognized the feminity of the screams, he said to himself:

"Dash it! What's she running and squealing like that for? Am I a wild beast or an Orson? What has happened to me? I shall go out of my senses soon."

So saying, he returned to his boots, and putting them on, laced them up, with many solemn waggings of the head. He had hardly moved out into the street again before he became aware of a mob of people running towards him, and he was almost instantly surrounded by an eager, excited crowd of dancing, yelling people. Some of them threw themselves on their knees at his feet and kissed his hands, some kissed his clothes, while others (most of them) leaped into the air and screamed. Jack was bewildered and dazed, but perceiving, in spite of their male attire, that those who were clinging to his hands were women, he raised them from the ground. In an instant their arms were round his neck, and the kisses were on his face, a fact no sooner perceived by others than they, too, precipitated themselves upon him, like a swarm of bees when the queen settles. Down went poor Jack in a sea of waving limbs. He struggled madly to his feet, dashing them aside, his coat torn, his whole form covered with dust. Clearing a space around page 56him with a sweep or two of his strong arms he shouted:

"You pack of d——d fools — you brazen hussies; what do you mean?"

A perfect chorus of joyful exclamations arose around him.

"Isn't, it lovely?"

"Just hear him swear!"

"The manly voice of him!"

One middle-aged woman, looking rather absurd in her boy's clothes, hugged herself and jumped straight up and down, crying, "Thanks be to goodness! I've been cussed by a man again!"

Every moment the throng grew denser, when there came a shout, "Here's the carriage! Make way for the carriage!" and an open barouche, drawn by a pair of grey horses and driven by an excited young lady, recklessly dashed through the crowd. In a perfect Babel of noise Jack was tenderly pushed and hustled towards the carriage-door. He stood upon the step, and turning, raised his hand. There was a moment's silence. He evidently had not recovered his temper, for he called out:

"I'll not be tumbled and jostled about like this. Let the nearest women join hands and make a ring to keep the others off."

Instantly the women recognized the voice of authority, and linking their arms in a great oval, two-deep, encircled the carriage and horses. The extraordinary procession began to move. Continually was the dense crowd augmented as it went on; those on the outside breaking down the garden fences and gathering flowers, which they flung singly or in wreaths upon Jack as he sat in new and solitary grandeur, but feeling like a fool nevertheless.

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As they entered Queen Street still new accessions to the number of the throng came pouring from every side street, making progress at times almost impossible. The noise was deafening. Jack would have tried to find out the meaning of it all by asking questions of some of the nearest girls, but no voice could be heard in the din. Some were singing hymns, some songs; others were screaming to each other in sheer excitement, or crying with inarticulate, hysterical voices.

Slowly they moved along from Queen Street up the long sloping hill till they reached the Albert Park, where amidst the grass and flowers fresh contingents awaited them. But among all the crowds of women there was never a man.

"What can it meant" thought Jack. "Ah! I have it. Some awful epidemic of madness has rushed through New Zealand, and driven many of the women crazy. The men have made Auckland a lunacy-quarantine ground, and have all fled to other places. It's just like my luck to have dropped into a Bedlam like this."

They reached the gates of Government House, and Jack's bodyguard fought fiercely to allow the carriage to pass through the gates, but the pressure of the dense excited crowd was too great, and it was only when the frail fences gave way on each side and allowed a wave of humanity to beat across the pleasure grounds under the oak trees, that the carriage was able to proceed to the foot of the entrance steps. Jack got out, and was going to enter the house, when there arose a great cry of entreaty from the masses of the people.

"Oh, don't go in yet!" "Don't let him go in!" "Let's look at him a little longer!"

The young man turned round upon the upper step, and waving with his hand, mutely asked for silence.

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A solemn hush fell upon the swaying crowd.

"Ladies!" he began; "ladies! fellow - citizens!" They gave him a loud, shrill cheer. "Few men own the power of your sex more fully and earnestly than I do, but at the present moment I am ' embarrassed with my riches.' Will you allow me to ask you to kindly depute one of your number to be a spokesman— that is, a spokeswoman—for the rest I want to know what is the meaning of this demonstration: I should like to learn what all this fuss is about, and whom you think I am. If you would depute somebody; not a young girl, but a married lady——"

He was interrupted by loud cries of "No! no!" and "Never!" One voice, stronger than the rest, was heard to say, "There are no married ladies here." Jack resumed:

"Then perhaps some elderly widow would——"

The whole assembly was in a moment in intense uproar; cries of rage rang over the sea of tossing arms. The young man stood dumbfounded at the tumult and anger he had evoked. One splendid specimen of a girl, full-grown and well-developed, with dusky hair streaming and bright eyes flashing, sprang up to the steps beside him and raised her arms.

"Hear her!" they cried; "hear her!" and in a few moments became peaceful.

"You heard him ask for a widow!" she shouted. "A widow! If any widow dares to come near him I'll kill her!"

"So will we!" came the infinite chorus. "So will we!"

Jack pushed the girl aside and spoke again:

"Nevertheless, I insist upon it that you select one of your number to confer with me this evening. Unless page 59this is done I will find some means to disappear again as suddenly as I came. But, rude as my speech may appear, even more than with any member of your sex I should prefer just now to confer with a man."

"With a man!" they cried unanimously, evidently both awe-struck and astonished. "Confer with a man?" Then the girl standing by Jack on the steps turned to him and made the tremendous remark:

"Why, the men are all dead; and you are the only man left alive in the world!"