Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
t
‘m:,<.p....
’i
....., .. -74,
'i
‘l
L
i
i
For in Minute the Itevoireru Spat
fl ’ The Honorof the Road
- By E. VV.
ERGEANT CAMERON was undress-
S ing for bed when he iirst heard the
.voices thru the weather-hoard
walls; in less than a minute there was
a knock at his door.
“Here's Mr. Hardcastle from Rosanna
sir. He says he must see you at once.”
“The deuce he does! What about?"
“He says he'll only tell you; but he's
ridden over in three hours, and he looks
' like the dead." .
“Give him some whisky, Tyler, and tell
him I'll be down in two ticks.”
-So saying. the gray-bearded. sergeant
of the New South Wales Mounted Police
tucked his nightgown into his cord
breeches, slipped into his tunic, and has-
tened to the parlor which served as
courtroom on occasion, huttuning as he
went. Iilr. llardcnstle had 3 glass to his
lips as the sergeant entered. He was a
very line man of 40. and his massive
frame was crowned with s. countenance
as handsome as it was open and bold;
but at a glance it was plain that he was
both Shaken and exhausted. and in no
mood to hide either his fatigue or his
distress. Sergeant Canierdn sat down
on the other side of the oval table with
the faded cloth; the younger constable
left the room when Ilardcastle
called him back.
"Don't go, Tyler." said he. “You may
as well both hear what I've got to say.
It's-it's Stingareel !"
The name was echoed in incredulous
undertones, . .
"But he's down ‘in Vic," urged the
sergeant. “He's been giving our chaps
a devil of a time down there!" ‘
"He's come back. I've seen him with
in, beginnim.’ at
The sergeant nodded. ‘
"or course you know him," the other
continued, "and so does the whole back-
country, ll (1 even beiore he won
this rortune in the Melbourne cup sweep.
; suppose you've heard ow e took the
‘as luddling himself from
’ ll ttle on Sun RY
'V‘V‘l?i8lIov(‘il‘e rniiil came; the nrst I knmv of
when 1 saw him sitting with his
I e us
that alter oon o cattli the coach and
go down to Sydney ror his in 3'. He
ought to have heen hack this awning
botore sundown." V V
The sergeant put in his word.
Hornung
"That he ought, for 1 saw him dome
off the coach and start for the station
soon as the a run up the horse he
as
left behind him at the pub, I wondered '
Vvhat. had brought him, if he was so set
on getting back to t e old country."
tell you'” said llardcilstler
after some little hesitation,
Poof Old Duncan was the most
and nothing would
serve him but that every soul on
Rosanna. should share more or less in
I am ashamed to tell
you hoxy much he spoke or pressing on
iyseif. You liave probably heard that
one of pecularilic-s was the
would never take rlayrnent by check. like
sn
it in the hardest form of casll "
much I
“But. what has happened, Mr. Hair
ca5itln"“ .
"Tl! very Wor " said llnrdcastle.
stooping to sip. ' e three heads came
(‘loser together across the faded tallie-
Clo i “There Was no Rig uf him at
7; he ugiit to ma been h s
before 5 W St to
had done our
make it an occasion, .llIid'Il nllwlned that
the dinner WDuld'l)e spoiled. So 3 even
young Evans, my store-keeper, went oi‘!
t 3 za op to meet him. an at twenty-
five past he came galloping buck lead-
ing 21 rid ess i the o s
u aw Duncan riding is afternoon
non the sutldlt-. I
d within another hour we
h.-iii found [he poor old boy himself. dead
and cold in the middle of the track, with
a bullet thru his heart." ,
The squatter's voice trembled with an
emotion that diri,him honor in his hear-
er's eyes: Rnti the Kris.
waited a little hniure asking questions.
- “What makes you think it is Sting-
’-1 tell you I saw him on the min, uith
my own eyes 1 morning passed
him in one or my paddocks, us close as
I am to you, and naked it he was look-
liomostead. ll answered
that lie was on ding Ihru, and we
neither oi’ us slonlwd." .
"Yet you knew all the time that it
was Stingaree?" -
“ 0' to he Guile honest," iihrdcostie,
"I never drenmod of it at tho Ilrne. Bu
ri-
eseli’. Yet.
givrn it didn't daw o e Just then. i
liappvned to be thinking of the stations
round nl-uut. and wondering’ if they
were Bi lvurnt up as we are. and when
I met this swell I simply took him for
llnrmlesuly In the Remaining Pltchuork or Dlnnrinhine rnnr Shadow.
Ll new chum ofone or other of them."
"There had been robbery, Of C0uI"B9'."'
“An absolute clearance,"
rustle. “Tile vallse had been cut to rib-
linns with a knite. and its other (‘on-
tents were sirewe B. l.Il>0uH 3. no (0 -
Still bulging from (lit!
-
in
=‘
to
=
o
=
started to lake him in I rode on to you,"
“iVe'il ride back with ou at one
nnld the sergeant. “and llnd y
own has had enough. nun
llardcasilo
can take his choice. It seems clear
"But I
, tingsree:
g that everybody said he would
do." ' -
“And yet it's the logical climax of his
his gins "ma sting one at )0
downi lctorlil the tlivr ay? Yo
biishranger is lioun to (‘nine to it Bonner
or later a
shoot: but he has only to izet up against
lnve given way. (all. we f0’Ul'Iti him
uith his own revolver last in his hand.
and to linger frozen to the trigger, but
not a chamber discharged."
- “Yes? Then that settles it. and it must
play," rried
we mustn‘t lose a
ting on this blackguarda tracks."
YET it Was midnight before the little
cavalcsiie setrout upon a. ride of
ox-or thirty miles, for arranizements llliti
to he made (or R telegram to be sent in
the postmaster, who
rund-
t llflZ<
zling zenith when they relrled u)) at the
scene of. the murder. This was 1
covered by the paIr.on'Ytrot, Intl noth-
ing seen or heard by their mounted
comra
They found the station Hlill satlr and
W in the Veiled daylight of
and veranda int
n.
rinsed alid dnrkenerl wliuiow. And hr-
11 that r9niaiYIl'<i
of an elderly man, whose brown, gnarled
face “:5 arucly rrcognfzahle hy the
newcomers in its strange, smooth nailor,
it's the Very’
I am
So metliing
About Him!
li a low years ago
you had been ioriu-
nate enough to have
into
Australia an . .
llayi-t-, the publisher
of the L('dgt‘r,is now
try similar in certain
ways to the West or our pioneer days,
hut in land in which the kaniznroo toob
the place oi the bumilo, the'l>oomeriing
that 0! the bow and arrow. And with its
edges crlss-crossed lllie our early West
by stage-coach lines, it had its famous
buslirniigers. despenito and fast-riding
fellows who were likely to appear on
any lonely road and force the stage-
coach occupants in disgorga their
wealth. There was Thunderbolt. Dior-
gan, lion llall mid Ned Kelly. .tnd
there was also Stlngareei
Stingurt-e, the daredevil oi all .the
highivnyiiien; Stlngart-it, the )l)'hi.('rl0I.lS,
who, it has so , “us once a prominent
Londoner. Silngarer. who loved music
better than he ltltell his plunder. Stine-
nree. the t-niiiitteretL Stiniznree, who ni-
witys rubbed his victims uitli ll. nionocle
in his right eye; Sllngnrec-, “IIO had
never killed it man. Siingiiree, “ho was
captured (line and uiznln, but “hose su-
perior cunning alhays lonhd hlin his
ireetloni. Stingaree, vilio, with his black-
beardeil mate, llowio, was seen in Vic-
toria today and heir South Wales to-
morrow. Stlngareo, who held a ismiihit:
contempt for the iorces of Australia‘:
law and order.
This was the man “hose imnie, ixilien
from that oi a peculiar stinging iisli.
was a byword ihruout Australia. And
this was the man about “'li0llI E. W.
llornung has woven in series oi the ins-'
tinailng titles, showing the Enrzllveli poo.
pic who ninlie up the life of that little-
linomi continent, as well as the strange
Arneririm-lllio asp:-rt til it: vrlldi-rlmasvs.
They present in hlizhly ‘exciting action
not only a series of stories about one
of the most remnrlinbls rrlmliinl rnreors
of that part at the eairili; lent. better,
portray for us a clinriicter. itntl a story
vviilcli (‘llll do this difficult lhliiy:-niake
us linnw a nmn-wilt-Ilier he be good or
hail-is always worth the rintlniz.
iiacli story is complete n itself.
Each is n story ni ihe iiimons Sting-
aroe himse I. ‘ ‘
but his grizzled beard weirdly familial‘
and still crisp with lingering life.
The roroner arrive: In some thirty
iiours. which had brought forth nothing’
new; ll jury was drawn in the men's
anilg rabhiters' l9nts:' and after
pi'olol'IiZ(‘ hut nconciusive investigat-
ion. the Inquest “'11)! adjourned for a
week. ut the seven days were as har-
ren as the tint. an
some Person
positive that they knew the person; for
stingnree had been seen 8. hundred
miles lower down. (1
ck to Ylctori
:-
in
and he mink into a
grayer at the temples, a thought loose.‘
in his dress, as the pugarees 0! Cameron
und Tyler nnally niittrreri out or night.
"I think we m '
i a'wry smile to Evans, who
fetchoil the decanter from the store; the
5 called tron-i a stable which
ad liecnirle Augean ‘ u g
and the three were still mildly tlrpiing
vs
"‘ "“"“‘ >- . .....
4
'4
.
‘I
-1
1
