Part 20 (1/2)
”No,” I replied; ”you stay and do what you can I'll ride back, and see Mr Spanker How far is it to where that swag is on the fence?”
”About--well, about seven mile, as the crow flies”
”Better have it here Noe'll catch the horses Come on, Mary!
Take her on your back, Rory; we itimate exactions of my diary-record; but the rest of the story is soon told Mr Spanker, as a Justice of Peace, took the sworn depositions of Ward, Andrews, Rory, and myself
In the man's pockets were found half-a-dozen letters, addressed to George Murdoch, Mooltunya Station, fro wife, Eliza H Murdoch Two of the letters acknowledged receipt of cheques; and there was another cheque (for 12 15s, if I rehtly) in his pocket-book, with about 3 in cash He was buried in the station celish, late station storekeeper, who had poisoned himself, and Jack Drummond, shearer, who had died--presu the record of the district Such is life
CHAPTER III
FRI NOV 9 Charley's Paddock Binney Catastrophe
What fatality impelled me to fix on the 9th, above all other days in the lance over the record of each 9th, before co myself by a promise to review and annotate the entries of that date? For, few and evil as the days of the years of e have undeniably been, the 9th of November, '83, is one of those which I feel least satisfaction in recalling Moreover, I incur a certain risk in thus unboso myself, as will becorily shadows raven with a pen of iron, that, at e, no man shi+rks a promise, or tells a fib, for the first ti”---the family motto of the Colonnas, that offshoot of our tribe which settled in Italy in the year One--I answer to my bail
One reservation I must make, however For reasons which will too soon become manifest, it is expedient to conceal the exact locality of the unhappy experience now about to be disclosed; but I think I shall be on the safe side in setting forth that it was somewhere between Echuca and Albury
Any person who happens to have preserved the files of the ---- Express e of the issue of Nov 12th, the following local intelligence:--
LUNATIC AT LARGE!
On the night of Friday last the inhabitants of ---- were thrown into a state of exciteened than described by the appearance of a lunatic in puris naturalibus whosethe earlier portion of the night the unfortunate man was seen from time to time by quite a number of people in placesfrom the picnic held by the Sunday School Teachers' Re-union (noticed elsewhere in our colu the three-chain road at a breakneck pace, others saw hi to conceal hi one of the picnic party, an athlete of some repute, made a plucky and determined atte him This accomplished secundem artem, an impulse of humanity prouessed, the gentleman referred to was Mr K----, of the firm of D---- and S----, Drapers,----) to divest hi for the benefit of his prisoner The latter, when Mr K---- atte upon him, rent the air with horrible shrieks heard by many others of the party, and by exertion of the unnatural strength which insanity confers, broke from his captor and escaped Mr K---- huonist If ere inclined to be facetious on the subject we est that mens sana in corpore sano is not an infallible rule
Late in the evening the maniac horresco referrens made a furious attack on the residence of Mr G---- as unfortunately absent at the tiuishes the farmer's wife, kept him at bay till some wild impulse drove him to seek ”fresh fields and pastures new” The black trackers (ere brought on the scene on Saturday afternoon) have found his tracks in Mr A----'s flower garden close to the parlour , and also around Mr H----'s homestead
The trackers aver that he is accorpanied by a large kaugaroo dog
It is a ratulation that he has so far failed in effecting an entrance to any habitation The police are scouring the neighbourhood and though the thunderstorht has unfortunately placed the trackers at fault, we trust soon to chronicle a clever capture, ”a consumarding the identity of the lunatic but to our estion of Inspector Collins, of the NSW Civil Service appears most tenable: On Saturday afternoon when the exciteentleman called at our office, and in course of conversation on the all-absorbing topic pronounced his opinion that the lunatic is no other than the late escapee from Beechworth Asylum! Anent his ht Mr Collins supposes that he enious and apparently conclusive argu the ingenuity and conclusiveness of those arguments, the chain of fatalities which has headed this story with the entry of Nov 9th brings the reluctant secret to light: I was that hoe of the newspaper just quoted will be also found to contain, in another coluret to learn that on theof Saturday last Mr Q---- lost a valuable stack of hay by fire The conflagation was detected al out but no steps could be taken to check the progress of the ”devouring eleht be reasonably expected that Mr Q----'s well-deserved popularity would be a sufficient safeguard against such barbarous incendiarisht to be in ”durance vile” At theto press we are happy to add that the police have a clue, and will soon no doubt unearth the cowardly perpetrator of this un-British outrage, and drag hin punish eventhan cowardly, took special order that the police should not unearth hi theh at the sa, like Sir Andrew, o' the windy side o' the law, by putting initials and dashes in place of full naa barrister
Now for my narrative Charley V----, a boundary rider on B---- Station, NSW, is one of my very oldest acquaintances Away back in the procuratorshi+p of Latrobe, two angels, in wreaths of asphodel, had almost simultaneously deposited Charley and myself on the same station; respectively, in the hut of a stock-keeper, and in the hut of a petty overseer
Together, as the seasons passed, we had looked forward to the shearing, the foot-rotting, and the laoon for the bunyip We had aimed our little reed-spears at the sas over the sa tree, and we had been welted an equal nu
Whatever may be the development of my own inner nature, Charley, at least, walks faithfully in thevouchsafed to hiht to distinguish soet whose, but no matter The mere ownershi+p of the property is a matter of perfect indifference to Charley When the place changes hands, he is valued and sold as part of the working plant, without his concern, and alo, but he virtually goes on for ever His little hut, three or four miles north from the Murray, is the very headquarters of hospitality He has some hundreds of pounds lent out (without interest or security) though his pay is only fifteen shi+llings a week--with ten, ten, two, and a quarter--and he is anything but a miser Many people would like a leaf out of his book It is h in a sort of a received the information in confidence Here it is:
In a bend, on the north bank of the Murray, a few miles from Charley's hut, is a tract, about a hundred acres in extent, of fine grass land, cos, reed-beds, dense scrub, and steep ridges of loose sand At the time I write of, it was impossible to ride to this island of verdure, and no white h the labyrinth that led to it Once placed in that spot, no horse would ever try to get away This is all the infor the afternoon of the 9th, I was sitting on a log, in the shade of a tree, on the north bank of the river, about a mile from that secluded Eden, and four or five fro; and the equip about A s under the handful of fire, and a quart pot of tea was slowly collecting a scu the worse to a , and Cleopatra and Bunyip were in Eden, per favour of the kindly scoundrel who held that property by right of discovery, and who, in spite of so with ers, and in various stages of ripening for rewards
Owing to the broken character of the country, the NSW river-road lay three or four miles north of Charley's very private property; but a short cut, i the winter, and impracticable at any time to wheeled vehicles, saved about three miles in ten, and passed within a mile of the property It was beside this pad that I was camped
The refined leisure of the day had been devoted chiefly to the study of -book--Edwards on Redemption--and now, half-stifled by the laborious blasphe deliverance fro the has to their intended use
Presently, sweeping the ground-line with the glass, I noticed, crossing an open place, about afrolass in his direction, and whenever he disappeared I was on the watch, and caught hi in the roasting sun