“What is it you wish!” asked the lieutenant, after a moment’s silence, surprised at the act.
“I wish you to hear a little reason, and not ruin us with your good intentions,” my friend answered, quietly.
Murden looked astonished, but made no reply. He refilled his pipe and lighted it in silence. At length he asked,—
“What do you mean by saying that I shall ruin you with my intentions? Do you think that I do not feel very keenly the situation in which my own thoughtlessness has placed you?”
“We have no doubt that your motives are good,” replied Fred, “but we know that you will listen to reason, and after a few words of explanation will agree with us that our course is right.”
Murden looked incredulous, and puffed away at his pipe vigorously; but he muttered, “Go on,” and we discovered that he was softening rapidly.
“It is evident,” Fred went on to state, “that the disaffected portion of the miners at this place think that we are in league with government in endeavoring to force the tax upon them, and, to revenge themselves, undertake to burn our store. This we must prevent.”
“That is what I told you in the first place,” interrupted the lieutenant. “We must have a police force around the store, and shoot down every suspicious character that approaches during the night.”
“Such a course would soon make the mines too hot to hold us, and instead of getting sympathy, we should get the undying hatred of every man in Australia. No, no; we must meet violence with kindness, and instead of making enemies, make friends.”
“Go on, and tell me how you will act to do so,” cried Murden.
“It is very simple: we must watch for those who seek to harm us, and convince them of our friendship,” responded Fred, earnestly.
“By hanging or shooting, I suppose,” replied Murden.
“Neither one nor the other method should we adopt. We will keep watch, and if an incendiary seeks to fire our building, we will seize him, and convince him that we are favorable to his cause, or that we mean to remain neutral during the coming struggle, and then set him free to return to his friends with the news.”
“Hadn’t you better throw in a glass of liquor, and a few plugs of tobacco?” asked the officer, sarcastically, never having heard of such kind of treatment to people who were disposed to be vicious.
“Your suggestion is good, and shall be acted on,” replied Fred, pleasantly. “Have you any other?”
“No, but I wish to tell you that you are laboring under a mistaken idea, and that you will regret your benevolent motives. Such a course as you describe might answer very well if the population of Ballarat was made up of high-minded and honorable men, and not the refuse of the old countries, whose crimes have outlawed them, and whose greatest inclination is to be in mischief.”
“You forget,” said Fred, “that this tax movement originated with the best and most intelligent men at the mines, and that the class of people you have described are bushrangers, or else men who live upon the community without work. If ever the miners and the government do have a collision, you will be surprised at the respectable ranks that the former will show.”