Page:The Toll of the Bush.pdf/114

concluded with a considerable debit. At the foot of the first page were the words:—

‘Mallows said to have done very well at the diggings. Bought a schooner and loaded her with goods, chiefly agricultural implements—but also, it is said, large quantity of gold dust—and set sail for the north. Schooner sighted off Hokitika September ’54. Never seen again.’

A little farther on was an account for £50 discharged by a contra of ten tons of gum. Gum was of very little value in those days. The loans on timber ran into very large amounts, and Geoffrey was pleased to see that they nearly always resulted profitably. The loans on real estate were more difficult to estimate, and it was the exception when any commensurate amount appeared on the credit side of the ledger. More frequently there was some such note as: ‘Gave this bit for school-ground,’ or less explicit, ‘Church stands here,’ or ‘Allowed the family to continue at nominal rent on account of my friendship with the father.’ But even in this last case there was nothing to show that the nominal rent had ever been paid. More often than not the red line went steadily across the page, and closed the matter up for good. It is not always in a man’s ledger that he appears at his best, but Geoffrey found his heart warming as he read.

But he was fated to make a discovery that should bring the Major’s business peculiarities home to him at his own door. In his idle turning of the leaves he came to a place where the pages adhered together, and absently lifting the paper-knife he divided them at the bottom and then at the top. Not until he had done so did it occur to him that