His Mate

It may have been a fragment of that higher     Truth dreams, at times, disclose;     It may have been to Fond Illusion nigher,     But thus the story goes:     A fierce sun glared upon a gaunt land, stricken     With barrenness and thirst,     Where Natures pulse with joy of Spring would quicken     No more; a land accurst.     Gray salt-bush grimmer made the desolation,     Like mocking immortelles     Strewn on the graveyard of a perished nation     Whose name no record tells.     No faintest sign of distant water glimmered     The aching eye to bless;     The far horizon like a swords edge shimmered,     Keen, gleaming, pitiless.     And all the long day through the hot air quivered     Beneath a burning sky,     In dazzling dance of heat that flashed and shivered:     It seemed as if hard by     The borders of this region, evil-favoured,     Life ended, Death began:     But no; upon the plain a shadow wavered,     The shadow of a man.     What man was this by Fate or Folly driven     To cross the dreadful plain?     A pilgrim poor? or Ishmael unforgiven?     The man was Andy Blane,     A stark old sinner, and a stout, as ever     Blue swag has carried through     That grim, wild land men name the Never-Never,     Beyond the far Barcoo.     His strength was failing now, but his unfailing     Strong spirit still upbore     And drove him on with courage yet unquailing,     In spite of weakness sore.     When, lo! beside a clump of salt-bush lying,     All suddenly he found     A stranger, who before his eyes seemed dying     Of thirst, without a sound.     Straightway beside that stranger on the sandy     Salt plain, a death-bed sad,     Down kneeling, Drink this water, mate! said Andy,     It was the last he had.     Behold a miracle! for when that Other     Had drunk, he rose and cried,     Let us pass on! As brother might with brother     So went they, side by side;     Until the fierce sun, like an eyeball bloody     Eclipsed in death, was seen     No more, and in the spacious West, still ruddy,     A star shone out serene.     As one, then, whom some memory beguiling     May gladden, yea, and grieve,     The stranger, pointing up, said, sadly smiling,     The Star of Christmas Eve!     Andy replied not. Unto him the sky was     All reeling stars; his breath     Came thick and fast; and life an empty lie was;     True one thing only, Death.     .     .     .     .     .     Beneath the moonlight, with the weird, wan glitter     Of salt-bush all around,     He lay; but by his side in that dark, bitter,     Last hour, a friend he found.     Thank God! he said. Hes acted more than square, mate,     By me in this, and Im     A Rip.. . . . He must have known I was, well, there, mate,     A White Man all the time.     To-morrows Christmas day: God knows where Ill be     By then, I dont; but you     Away from this Deaths hole should many a mile be,     At Blakes, on the Barcoo.     You take this cheque there, they will cash it, sonny. . . .     It meant my Christmas spree. . . .     And do just what you like best with the money,     In memory of me.     The stranger, smiling, with a little leaven     Of irony, said, Yea,     But there it shall not be. With me in Heaven     Youll spend your Christmas Day.     Then that gray heathen, that old back-block stager,     Half-jestingly replied,     And laughed, and laughed again, Mate, its a wager!     And, grimly laughing, died.     .     .     .     .     .     St. Peter stood at the Celestial Portal,     Gazing down gulfs of air,     When Andy Blane, no longer now a mortal,     Appeared before him there.     What seekst thou here? the saint in tone ironic     Said. Surely the wrong gate     This is for thee. Andy replied, laconic,     I want to find my mate.     The gates flew wide. The glory unbeholden     Of mortal eyes was there.     He gazed, this trembling sinner, at the golden     Thrones, terrible and fair,     And shuddered. Then down through the living splendour     Came One unto the gate     Who said, with outspread hands, in accents tender:     Andy! I am your mate!