Part 20 (1/2)

After breakfast, flour and water or hoet which, the warder told ht up before Christistrate ay on a istrates would not be likely to attend before the end of the week, anyway So I must make myself coht Ji said it was i me some dinner'

I was pretty certain they wouldn't catch Ji so cocksure about it If he wasn't knocked off the firsthis horse, and facing hione to join father at the tableland of the Nulla Mountain

Once he got near there he could let go his horse They'd be following his track, while he made the best of his way on foot to the path that led to the Hollow If he had five miles start of them there, as was most likely, all the blacks in the country would never track where he got to

He and father could live there for a month or so, and take it easy until they could slip out and do a bit of father's old trade That was about what I expected Jiht as could be They ran his track for ten miles Then they followed his horse-tracks till late the second day, and found that the horse had slued round and was ain with nobody on him Jim was nowhere to be seen, and they'd lost all that ti to diso his oay

They searched Nulla Mountain from top to bottom; but some of the smartest men of the old Mounted Police and the best of the stockmen in the old days--men not easy to beat--had tried the same country many years before, and never found the path to the Hollow So it wasn't likely any one else would They had to coe and er, blow theether they had a bad time of it, not that it istrate was fished up so constable's evidence taken Then I was remanded to the Bench at Nomah, where Mr Hood and some of the other witnesses were to appear So ae started for another journey Goring and a trooper ith ive the used to put one of ht, so there wasn'thio much faster than I could run, for fear of accident It was even betting that he'd fall and kill h in ainst the Police Depart safer horses for their prisoners to ride They keep the after they can't go a hundred yards without trying to walk on their heads they're thought good enough to carry packs and prisoners

'So said, 'one of those old screill be the death of a prisoner before he's committed for trial, and then there'll be a row over it, I suppose'

We hadn't a bad journey of it on the whole The troopers were civil enough, and gavenow and then when they had one the ht about What came afterwards wasn't their look-out I've no call to have any bad feeling against the police, and I don't think ot their work to do, like other people, and as long as they do what they're paid for, and don't go out of their way to harass men for spite, we don't bear theht it's the fortune of war What our side don't like isin for police duty that's not in their line That's interfering, according to our notions, and if they fall into a trap or are et it pretty hot They've only the, I could see by his ways, had been a swell, so fellows that don't drop into fortunes when they cooodkind of life, and if they stick steady at their work, and show pluck and gu was a real slishman; that is, he could set most horses, and hold his oith us natives anywhere but through scrub and mountain country No man can ride there, I don't care who he is, the same as we can, unless he's been at it all his life There we have the pull--not that it is so ood horse and thick country, and he'll lose any rown up

By and by we got to No lock-up I was stuck in, of course, and had leg-irons put on for fear I should get out, as another fellow had done a feeeks back Starlight and Warrigal hadn't reached yet; they had farther to come The trial couldn't come till the Quarter Sessions January, and February too, passed over, and all this tih to stifle aweather we had

I heard afterwards that they wanted to bring so his property But he said he could only swear to its being his brand; that he most likely had never set eyes on thee that they hadn't been sold, like lots of others, by hisathat the animals he sold were the property of the prosecutor, and known by hio all the way to Adelaide hiot out of it all, only for the imported bull When he saw him he said he could swear to him point blank, brand or no brand

He'd no brand on hiland; but Hood happened to be in Sydney when he came out, and at the station when he came up He was stabled for the first six o and look him over every day, and tell visitors what a pot of money he'd cost, till he knew every hair in his tail, as the saying is As soon as he seen him in Adelaide he said he could swear to hi horse So he was brought over in a steamer from Adelaide, and then drove all the way up to Nomah I wished he'd broken his neck before we ever saw hiht in, handcuffed, between two troopers, and looking as if he'd ridden a long way He was just as easy-going and devil-may-care as ever He said to one of the troopers--

'Here we are at last, and I'lad of it It's perfectly ht to ent, and I'd show you the sort of horses that ought to be bought for police service Let ood fellow, before I' of inside'

The constable laughed, and had one brought to hiet another, captain Here's a long one for you; make the al? I thought to iven them the slip? He had, as it turned out He had slipped the handcuffs over his slight wrists and small hands, bided his time, and then dashed into a scrub There he was at hoone like a rock wallaby It was a good while before he was as near the gaol again

All this ti hoas they came to drop on our names so pat, and to find out that Jim and I had a share in the Momberah cattle racket All they could have knoas that we left the back of Boree at a certain day; and that was nothing, seeing that for all they knee one away to new country or anywhere The iven to the police information about us--so It wasn't Starlight We could have depended our life on hiht have been one of the other chaps, but I couldn't think of any one, except Warrigal He would do anything in the world to spite me and Ji the net tighter round Starlight Sooner than hurt a hair of his head he'd have put his hand into the fire and kept it there I knew that froht and I hadn't et news froed We were to be defended, and a lawyer fetched all the way froht our case for us The h people he had that did every kind of work for hie ca su--came to an end somehow or other It was so hot and close and I was that miserable I had twoI couldn't settle to read, as I did afterwards I was alishi+ng and wondering when I'd hear some news from home, and none ever came No but idle and drink, and spend money when they had it When they had none they went away There wasn't even a place to take exercise in, and the leg-irons I wore night and day began to eat into my flesh I wasn't used to them in those days I could feel theot ill, and for a while was so weak and low they thought I was going to get out of the trial altogether

At last we heard that the judge and all his lot were on the road, and would be up in a few days We were al let off One day they did coe stopped at one hotel (they told us); the lawyers at another Then the witnesses in ours and other cases careat difference, especially to the publicans The jurors were su fined Most of this I heard fro that made any difference in their lives Last of all I heard that Mr Hood had come, and the imported bull, and some other witnesses

There were soht and I, and put in the dock The court was crammed and crowded; every soul within a hundred miles seemed to have come in; there never were so ht was quietly dressed, and looked as if he was there by ed and stared about, as if he thought there was so very curious and hard to understand about the whole thing I was so weak and ill that I couldn't stand up, and after a while the judge told ht made a most polite bow, and thanked his Honour, as he called hian his work He stood alongside of Starlight, and whispered soht stood up, and about every second o down It took a good while to get our jury all together Our lawyer seemed very particular about the sort of jury he was satisfied with; and when they dido on, and then the Crown Prosecutor made a speech, in which he talked about the dishonesty which was creeping unchecked over the land, and the atrocious villainy of criminals who took a thousand head of cattle in one lot, and o to destruction if ere not convicted He said that unfortunately they were not in a position to bring many of the cattle back that had been taken to another colony; but one reood for purposes of evidence as a hundred Such an animal he would produce, and he would not trespass on the patience of jurors and gentleer, but call his first witness

John Dawson, sworn: Was head stocker at Moeneral way the cattle running there; was not out y, and the cattle were hardly ever o, with soe number of the Mo; went to Adelaide a few e number of cattle of the HOD brand, which he was told had been sold by the prisoner now before the court, and known as Starlight, and others, to certain farmers; he could swear that the cattle he saw bore Mr Hood's brand; could not swear that he recognised thee; believed so, but could not swear it; he had seen a short-horn bull outside of the court this ; he last saw the said bull at the station of Messrs Fordham Brothers, near Adelaide; theythe bull; he would and could swear to the identity of the anie, an imported short-horn bull, the property of Mr Hood; had seen hiht said bull in Sydney, and was at Momberah when he was sent up; could not possibly be mistaken; when he saw the bull at Momberah, nine months since, he had a small brand like H on the shoulder; Mr Hood put it on in witness's presence; it was a horse-brand, now it resembled J-E; the brand had been 'faked' or cleverly altered; witness could see the original brand quite plain underneath; as far as he knew Mr Hood never sold or gave any one authority to take the animal; he had missed him some months since, and always believed he had strayed; knew the bull to be a valuable animal, worth several hundred pounds

We had one bit of luck in having to be tried in an out-of-the-way place like Noh the distance oughtn't to have much to say to people's honesty, you'll ot men and women to match 'em

Except the squatters and overseers, the other people's mostly a shady lot Some's run away from places that were too hot to hold 'em

The women ain't the men's wives that they live with, but somebody else's--who's well rid of 'em too if all was known There'sdone on the quiet, and the publicans and storekeepers knoho are their best customers, the square people or the cross ones It ain't so easy to get a regular up-and-down straight-ahead jury in a place of this sort So Starlight and I knew that our chance was a lot better than if we'd been tried at Bargo or Dutton Forest, or any steady-going places of that sort

If we'd et into it it wouldn't have been so bad; we'd have knoe had to bear it Noeit would be to feel free again, and walk about in the sun without any one having the right to stop you