End of the Line

By DAVID PHILLIPS

Would a grandson follow a dead man's trail all the way to the end of the line?

Can a man, beaten down to nothing,ever make it back to where he has once been?

  

Daniel Hart met Eliza Chambers. They fell in love.

Could she marry so far below her station in life? Would he be prepared to live in her family's grand mansion?

And then along came a war.

On his return, Daniel felt the abject shame of the penniless while his fiance, Eliza, was a wealthy heiress.

A desperate departure in search of fortune led to the heartfelt fear of a beggar on the streets of a dusty mining town. The rescue by a kindly businessman who saw a lonely loser down on his luck and bereft of hope.

Would the eventual bonanza gold strike change Daniel?

Years later, would utter financial ruin be the end of him?

And how would Eliza reconcile her heart to his decision to search, yet again, for a bonanza to restore his pride?

 *

Jacob Hart found the letters from Daniel when Eliza passed away. He resolved to follow those letters through the back-tracks of Australia, searching for the essence of the man who was his grandfather and for the old man's final resting place.

He found all he was looking for at the end of the line.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DavidRPhillips
• Release date: Aug 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393801627

DAVID PHILLIPS

David Phillips, FCPA (ret.) is in his mid-seventies and lives just out of Melbourne, Australia. He began writing in his early seventies and found an enjoyment in putting ideas together with research to come up with stories, often linked to historical events of interest. He finds writing a labour of love and spends time at the keyboard every day.

Book preview

End of the Line.

BOOK ONE

Chapter One

Daniel Hart met Eliza Chambers at a Charity Ball in 1898. He was twenty years of age, dashing, handsome and, apart from his secret cache of gold nuggets, penniless. Eliza was beautiful, sophisticated, and daughter and only child of a wealthy businessman and landowner in the city of Bendigo and beyond. They were worlds apart.

She showed him the dance steps and he picked them up right away. By the end of the night they were friends and he had learned to dance with a degree of confidence.

‘Are you sure you have never danced before, Daniel? You seemed quite sure of the steps by the end of the night.’

‘First time, Eliza. Promise. You must be the perfect teacher.’

‘Or you are a good student.’

‘I am a good student, I suppose. I like to learn, and I like to study. It seemed natural tonight, with you, and learning steps which are not too complicated. I never expected to enjoy tonight, and it’s been a real pleasure to meet you and get to know you.’

‘For me also, Daniel. It’s been fun.’

‘I would like to see you again, Eliza.’

‘That would be nice. You can call around to see me, if you want to.’

‘I will.’

‘Good. So, I’ll see you then.’

‘Yes. Goodnight, Eliza.’

She smiled her goodnight and he left her at her father’s table and went home, bells ringing in his mind, bells of delight and of trepidation.

*

Daniel realised he was far beneath her. She lived in a mansion of grand proportions and heritage and was in line to be a woman of great wealth. He lived with his parents in a small three-bedroom weatherboard house in a side street of the city. He thought it would be presumptuous to even walk up the long path to Havenswood and call on Eliza and, for a long time, he refrained from doing so.

Daniel was born in 1878 in the provincial city of Sandhurst, soon to be re-named Bendigo, about one hundred miles north of Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, Australia. Almost thirty years earlier, it was a boom town as men came in a rush from around the world to seek their fortunes in the diggings and the creek beds said to be overloaded with gold.

Daniel’s parents, Ezekiel and Mary would love him, in their way, but the freeborn spirit that Daniel would become was from within; his parents contributed little to the character and development of their son.

In the same year as his birth, members of the yet-to-be notorious Kelly gang murdered three troopers at Stringy Bark Creek, the beginning of a deadly drama across northern Victoria and southern New South Wales as police closed in on the daring criminals. The activities of the Kelly gang, before their capture and elimination, laid some of the foundations of the Australian spirit of independent thinking, resentment of over-bearing authority, and the inherent desire to travel the wide expanses of the country. Perhaps there was something in the congruence of events to influence the knee-jerk directions in which Daniel’s life would unfold and the way it would drift at the end.

The young Daniel was free to explore the wealth of opportunities for a child and to learn about risk and reward. There were abandoned mine shafts, left as empty of reward by the last man to try to eke a living from this hole in this piece of earth but, potentially, riddled with gold to a boy with dreams, a sense of the excitement of life and a spirit of adventure. There were Chinese camps where the occupants worked day and night to extract the remnants of gold yet to be taken and, despite regular warnings, Daniel spent many an afternoon with those of the Celestial Empire, learning of their homeland and of their successes and failures. He never went home hungry from these visits; he never left without the determination that, one day, he would make a spectacular gold discovery and be rich, someone to be admired, rather than a clerk at the local timber company like his father, regarded by Daniel as a man having no interest in life, of a human just being.

Daniel was alone but totally unaware of it. There was never enough time in the day for him to include all the adventures dreamed up in his fertile mind, or to explore yet another mine-shaft offering the dream of a wondrous gold nugget, or to eat rice with sweet and sour chicken or pork with his Chinese friends, or to meet other boys for games of cricket and football. He had a family, that much he knew. He had little expectation beyond the fact. Daniel was a happy, well-adjusted boy who did very well at school and grew into a tall, strong, handsome youth.

At the age of fourteen, he read of the discovery, in 1892, of huge deposits of gold at Southern Cross, inland from Perth in Western Australia. His days were always involved with the dreams and the search for the precious metal in the diggings he was able to access. Daniel scoured every newspaper he could get his hands on for stories around the country relating to gold. He longed to be able to travel across the country and be part of this new rush. Daniel felt cheated at birth; he felt he should have been at the rush to Bendigo in the 1850’s, or the rush to Bathurst and Oberon in New South Wales, and now he was too young to be able to join this latest rush to yet another fantastic discovery.

The news enlivened his fossicking around the creeks and disused mining sites – every spare moment he lived the life of a digger, arriving each morning hours before school, loaded with picks, shovels and pans and working a site until he had to race to beat the school bell. He often turned up ragged and dirty from the activity and was ribbed by school-mates and shunned by the girls. Daniel secretly jiggled the small nuggets in his pocket, found in the past few days, which he would add to those in a jar he hid in the back of a small cupboard in his bedroom. His high grades protected him from criticism by the teaching staff.

And the news enlivened his dreams, dreams of the day when he would be free to travel the country, to go anywhere, to chase down the latest exciting opportunity or chance of a lifetime. He dreamed of being a miner in his own right, opening a speculative piece of dirt and creating a mine producing ounce after ounce of gold, bringing him wealth and recognition.

On his ‘days off’’, as he called them, he would ride the plains around Bendigo on his chestnut mare Flight, along with his cross-bred terrier Foxie. He led a ‘Boys-Own-Manual’ life, free and unrestrained, at one with the world around him. On week-ends, apart from early morning church, it was only on rare occasions that either of his parents had any idea where he was during the day, and Daniel found it suited him fine.

As a result of his freedom, he began to know himself. He saw his future as a loner, working his mines alone, sharing friendships but never his workings, nor his inner thoughts, nor his life. He had never considered the concept of marriage, the tying of two lives in a tight bond of co-operation and cohabitation. Perhaps the lack of cohesion between his parents influenced this oversight in a young mind seeking out the future.

As he reflected on those earlier years, there was nothing Daniel could perceive to place him as head of the house and living in a mansion as husband of a lady with the social standing of Eliza Chambers.

*

And then he met Eliza in a book shop, each searching for a present to a friend. Daniel was embarrassed, as though caught in a misdeed, and could feel the redness appear on his cheeks. Eliza acted as though there was nothing unusual in the meeting.

‘Daniel. How are you? Been dancing lately?’

He fumbled for words. ‘No... Look, I’m sorry... you know...’

‘It’s all right, Daniel. You are still welcome any time you would like to pop in for a cup of tea and a chat.’

A week later he called. They walked in the gardens and chatted as old friends; it was uncanny how easily they related given the disparity in their circumstances. Daniel soon realised Eliza was an independent thinker; she appeared to have little regard for others who might try to determine who she liked and with whom she shared her time.

The following visits led to a growing closeness and, one day, Daniel realised they were talking as lovers, as two young people heading toward a life together. He took long walks, trying to see how it could be possible. He knew that Eliza’s father had cautioned her, pointing out that Daniel could be looking for a soft life with a wealthy wife. Eliza told him she defended him and told her father she was sure of Daniel’s honesty and decency and, although she was predestined to heed her father’s advice, her suitor was a man with a future.

Daniel made up his mind. He would ask Eliza to marry him and see what followed. He went to visit the jeweller he knew following several discussions on the value of the nuggets he had saved away over the years. They reached agreement and Daniel’s cache of gold was exchanged for a ring, the best the jeweller could make for him. Previously, he had quietly asked the maid, at an opportune time when tea was being served, if she knew Eliza’s ring size. She promised not to say a word.

On one of their walks, he knelt on the lawns before her, shaking, dry of mouth, desperately forcing himself to speak clearly and in his normal voice.

‘Eliza, I am unworthy of you in every way I can think of and yet I know there is love between us. I have been wondering whether I would be brave enough to ask you this. Eliza Chambers, will you be my wife – will you marry me?’

In shaking hand, he held an opened red velvet box displaying the ring, one she might have seen was not from the upper levels of a jeweller’s display case even as she realised it was major commitment from a young man of limited means.

‘Yes! Of course, Daniel. Yes, I will marry you.’

Eliza took his hands and drew him to her. They embraced and she helped him place the ring on her finger. She held her hand in the sunlight, admiring the ring as the diamond glittered brightly to match the delight he could see in her eyes.

*

The remaining obstacle, uppermost in their minds, was the impending reaction of Eliza’s father to the proposed engagement. He had made it clear to her that she should marry a man within the social set of the family and friends and be sure to find a man who would have the means to support her in a comfortable lifestyle. Eliza had been constantly reminded that her young friend had no money, no immediate prospects, worked in the local timber mill as a mechanic, and would receive no drive from his family members. Daniel sent a letter to the house, to Mr. J. Chambers, asking for a meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest. A time was set, and Daniel arrived in his best suit and tie, ready for a difficult time with a man used to getting what he wanted. There was a determined look in his eye.

It was a not uncommon setting. Both men were nervous, slightly edgy, as the tea was served by the maid, along with a smile in recall of her minor involvement. They spoke for a few minutes on matters of no importance, before Daniel took a deep breath and began the formal discussion.

‘Mister Chambers, I have asked Eliza to marry me and she has accepted subject to your acceptance of the engagement. I understand you do not see me as the ideal husband for your wonderful daughter, but we are in love and the future is a big, wide, exciting world of opportunities for the young. I believe I am ready to accept the challenges of the days and years ahead.’

As Daniel pressed his claim, Joshua Chambers saw himself confronted with a tall, confident, bright-eyed young man and he took a mental step backward as he recognised the inner power of his daughter’s suitor. At the end of Daniel’s impassioned submission, he was left with no questions as to the right of the fellow to have Eliza’s hand in marriage. He gave his assent and a shake of hand following Daniel’s assertion of his love for Eliza, his confidence in the future, and assurance of his honesty, industry and trustworthiness.

The engagement was announced; the wedding date to be advised.

And then there was a war.

*

Chapter Two

In late 1899, the troubles between Britain and the Boer in South Africa culminated in official hostilities and a state of war now existed.

And it was too much for Daniel Hart to resist. He had to be part of the Australian response. It was impossible to ignore the excitement among the young men in the city, all clamouring for a place in the great adventure in a distant land and Daniel was at the fore. The Victorian government had earlier offered troops to Britain should the ongoing problems require additional men and resources. Daniel had been reading all he could following the government’s offer and he wanted to be part of a mounted unit, given his background of horse riding, rifle shooting and camping out in the bush. He prevailed on Joshua Chambers, a man with influence in many circles, to obtain an opening with the Victorian Mounted Rifles, his preferred attachment. He knew they were recruiting members from the high country of northern and eastern Victoria and had contacts in these areas. His application was accepted, and he received instructions to report at once to the regiment. There would be a sustained period of training before the men would be on their way to battle and Daniel had leave time to see Eliza during this time.

Despite the pleas of Eliza to reconsider his rash reaction to the announcements, Daniel was eventually kitted out and ready for action. He called to kiss her goodbye and assure her he would be back as soon as the war was over as he rushed off to join the men being called in support of the mother country. Joshua Chambers shook his hand as he sent the gallant young man to the fate that awaited him. He felt it was sometimes fair for fate to have the chance to make critical determinations. He wished well for Daniel, merely pondered the alternative.

Daniel was impatient for the day of the parade to the quay where the