A Bid for Fortune | Page 9

there before." I'd not been knocking about the rough side of the
world for fifteen years without learning how to take care of myself.
When they had had about enough of it, which was most likely more
than they had bargained for, I took the purse and went to where the
innocent cause of it all was standing. She was looking very white and
scared, but she plucked up sufficient courage to thank me prettily.
I can see her now, standing there looking into my face with big tears in
her pretty blue eyes. She was a girl of about twenty-one or two years of
age--tall, but slenderly built, with a sweet oval face, bright brown hair,
and the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen in my life. She was
dressed in some dark green material, wore a fawn jacket, and, because
the afternoon was cold, had a boa of marten fur round her neck. I can
remember also that her hat was of some flimsy make, with lace and
glittering spear points in it, and that the whole structure was
surmounted by two bows, one of black ribbon, the other of salmon
pink.
"Oh, how can I thank you?" she began, when I had come up with her.
"But for your appearance I don't know what those men might not have
done to me."

"I was very glad that I was there to help you," I replied, looking into
her face with more admiration for its warm young beauty than perhaps
I ought to have shown. "Here is your purse. I hope you will find its
contents safe. At the same time will you let me give you a little piece of
advice. From what I have seen this afternoon this is evidently not the
sort of place for a young lady to be walking in alone and after dark. I
don't think I would risk it again if I were you."
She looked at me for a moment and then said:
"You are quite right. I have only myself to thank for my misfortune. I
met a friend and walked across the green with her; I was on my way
back to my carriage--which is waiting for me outside--when I met those
men. However, I can promise you that it will not happen again. I am
leaving Sydney in a day or two."
Somehow, when I heard that, I began to feel glad I was booked to leave
the place too. But of course I didn't tell her so.
"May I see you safely to your carriage?" I said at last. "Those fellows
may still be hanging about on the chance of overtaking you."
Her courage must have come back to her, for she looked up into my
face with a smile.
"I don't think they will be rude to me again, after the lesson you have
given them. But if you will walk with me I shall be very grateful."
Side by side we proceeded down the path, through the gates and out
into the street. A neat brougham was drawn up alongside the kerb, and
towards this she made her way. I opened the door and held it for her to
get in. But before she did so she turned to me and stretched out her
little hand.
"Will you tell me your name, that I may know to whom I am
indebted?"
"My name is Hatteras. Richard Hatteras, of Thursday Island, Torres

Straits. I am staying at the Quebec."
"Thank you, Mr. Hatteras, again and again. I shall always be grateful to
you for your gallantry!"
This was attaching too much importance to such a simple action, and I
was about to tell her so, when she spoke again: "I think I ought to let
you know who I am. My name is Wetherell, and my father is the
Colonial Secretary. I'm sure he will be quite as grateful to you as I am.
Good-bye."
She seemed to forget that we had already shaken hands, for she
extended her own a second time. I took it and tried to say something
polite, but she stepped into her carriage and shut the door before I could
think of anything, and next moment she was being whirled away up the
street.
Now old fogies and disappointed spinsters can say what they please
about love at first sight. I'm not a romantic sort of person--far from
it--the sort of life I had hitherto led was not of a nature calculated to
foster a belief in that sort of thing. But if I wasn't over head and ears in
love when I resumed my walk that evening, well, I've never known
what the passion is.
A daintier, prettier, sweeter little angel surely never walked the earth
than the girl I