“Don’t you want… Banker?"
” Not now. “
You were shouting for him. “
That was before I saw you. “
I walked beside the chair thinking what a marvelous adventure this was and I heartily applauded his suggestion for I had no wish for us to be seen. He brought the chair to rest in the shade and I sat down on the grass. We studied each other.
“Are you a miner?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Gold, I suppose.”
He shook his head.
Opals. “A sudden shiver of excitement ran through me.
“Opals!” I cried.
“My name is Opal.”
“Well, now, is it? Opal Clavering. It sounds very grand to me.”
They never call me by it. I’m always Jessica. That’s rather ordinary after Opal, don’t you think? I often wonder why they gave me the name if they didn’t want to call me by it. “
“You couldn’t have a prettier name,” he said. The reddish tinge in his cheeks deepened, and his eyes were a very bright blue. There’s nothing more beautiful than an opal. Don’t start talking to me about diamonds or rubies. “
“I wasn’t going to.”
“I can see you know better than to do that to an old gouger.”
A what? “
“An opal miner.”
“What do you do? Tell me about it’ ” You smell out the land and you hope and you dream. Every miner dreams he’s going to find the most beautiful stones in the world. “
“Where do you find them ?”
“Well, there’s South Australia -Coober Pedy and Mooka Country, and there’s New South Wales and Queensland.”
“You’re from Australia,” I said.
That’s where I found opal, but I started out from the Old Country.
Australia’s rich in opal. We haven’t scratched the surface of the land yet. Who’d have thought there was opal in Australia? You can picture the excitement when they found it. Con you picture it? Some brumbies scratching the land with their hoofs and . there’s opal. By God, what a find! In those days we thought they had to come from Hungary . never thought to look elsewhere. They’d mined them there for hundreds of years. That milky kind. Very pretty . but give me the black opals of Australia. “
He paused and looked up at the sky. He was scarcely aware of me, I was sure. He was back in time, in space, miles away on the other side of the world, gouging-or whatever he called it-for his black opals.
"Diamonds . pah! ” he went on.
“What’s a diamond? Cold fire, that’s what. White ! Look at an opal…”
How I should have loved to, but the next best thing was to listen to him.
“Australian opals are the best,” he went on. They’re harder. They don’t splinter as easily as some. They’re lucky stones. Long ago people used to believe opals brought good fortune. Do you know Emperors and Nabobs used to wear them because they were said to protect them against attack? It used to be said that an opal could prevent your being poisoned by your enemies. Another story was that they cured blindness. What more can you ask than that? “
"Nothing,” I agreed heartily.
“Oculus Mundi. That’s what they’re called. Do you know what that means? I confessed that my education did not carry me so far.
The Eye of the World,” he told me.
“Wear it and you’ll never commit suicide.”
“I’ve never had one, but I’ve never wanted to commit suicide.”
“You’re too young. And you say Opal’s your name? And Jessica too. Do you know, I like that Jessie. Ifs friendly.”
“At least it doesn’t make you think of a cure for blindness and a protection against the poison cup.”
“Exactly,” he said, and we both burst into laughter.
“Opals bring the gift of prophecy,” he went on.
“So they used to say-prophecy and foresight.”
He took a ring from his little finger and showed it to me. It was a-beautiful stone set in gold. I slipped it on my thumb, but even that was too small for it. I watched the light play on the stone. It was deep blue shot with red, yellow, and green lights. He held out his hand for the ring as though he were impatient that it should be too long out of his possession so I gave it back to him.
“It’s beautiful; I said.
“New South Wales … that’s where it comes from. I tell you this.
Miss Jessie, there are going to be some big finds there one day . even bigger than we’ve had already. I won’t be in on it, though. ” He tapped the tartan rug.
“Hazards of the business. Got to accept them, you know. Think of the rewards. I’ll never forget the day this happened. I thought it was the end of me. I was collecting nobbies.
Clinging to the roof, they were, like oysters . yes, just like oysters. I couldn’t believe my luck. Picture me . gouging away. It was in a cave and I was deep in, and there they were in this gritty reddish seam . lovely nobbies. Suddenly there was a rumble and down came the roof of this cave. It was three hours before they could get me out. I’d got my opals, though, and one of them-well, it was a real beaut, worth losing a leg for, or so I told myself. But between you and me your own limbs shouldn’t be bartered for anything . not even this little beauty of mine. By God, she’s a prize. For a moment I thought I’d found the Green Flash again. Not quite, though . still, there’s a wonderful green in this one . a magic sort of green. She was the first thing I saw when I came round . because I was in a hospital for a long time while they cut my leg off. Had to.
Gangrene and all that. It was a long time before they could get me down to Sydney, and by that time the leg was a goner. And the first thing I said was: “Show me that green opal.” And there she was lying in the palm of my hand, and though I knew there was nothing there where my leg used to be, I felt such pride as you wouldn’t understand just to look at the lovely thing lying there in my hand.
“It ought to have brought you protection against the falling rock,” I commented.
“Well you see, it wasn’t mine until the rock started to crack. I look at it like this: It was the price I had to pay for my nobbies. That strike made me a millionaire.”
“It would have been awful to lose your leg for nothing.”
“I knew it was the end of my mining days. Whoever heard of a one-legged gouger? But perhaps I’ll get out again when I get used to hobbling around. But first I’ll have to educate myself in the way of my wooden leg. I’ve got to have a long rest, they tell me, so I thought the best place to come to was Oakland. And here I am trying to get used to a crutch and at wooden leg and relying on this old chair to carry me around,” and you see what nearly happened to me but for a certain young lady “I’m so glad I saw you, not only because…”
“Yes, because what?”
“So that we could meet and I could hear about opals.”
There’s been a sort of feud between our families. ” He laughed aloud, and I laughed with him. It was a certain bond between us, which kept us laughing for not much reason, for it wasn’t so much the laughter provoked by amusement as that of sheer pleasure and the unusual nature of our meeting. I thought then-and I became sure of it later-that he liked the idea of snapping his fingers at my family.
I bought their home, you see,” he said, ‘and it had been in their family for ages. They’ve got the Clavering arms over the hall fireplace … all drawn out on the wall and very pretty too. This one married that one and there’d been Claverings at Oakland Hall since 1507, until this rough Henniker came along and took it from them-not with fire and sword, not with gunpowder and battering rams-but with money!”
The Claverings should never have let it go if they wanted to keep it so much. As for you, Mr. Henniker, you risked your life to get it and you’ve got it. and I’m glad. “