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Flat and Other Stories, by Louis Becke
Project Gutenberg's Chinkie's Flat and Other Stories, by Louis Becke This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Chinkie's Flat and Other Stories 1904
Author: Louis Becke
Release Date: March 11, 2008 [EBook #24805]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINKIE'S FLAT AND OTHER STORIES ***
Produced by David Widger
CHINKIE'S FLAT AND OTHER STORIES
By Louis Becke
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company 1904
TO MY DEAR OLD COMRADES
North Queensland.
CHAPTER I
~ "CHINKIE'S FLAT"
"Chinkie's Flat," In its decadence, was generally spoken of, by the passing traveller, as a "God-forsaken hole," and it certainly did present a repellent appearance when seen for the first time, gasping under the torrid rays of a North Queensland sun, which had dried up every green thing except the silver-leaved ironbarks, and the long, sinuous line of she-oaks which denoted the course of Connolly's Creek on which it stood.
"The township" was one of the usual Queensland mining type, a dozen or so of bark-roofed humpies, a public-house with the title of "The Digger's Best," a blacksmith's forge, and a quartz-crushing battery.
The battery at Chinkie's Flat st