第56章

Just as Jim cleared the gate a tall man rose up close behind me and took a cool pot at him with a revolver.I saw Jim's hat fly off, and another bullet grazed his horse's hip.I saw the hair fly, and the horse make a plunge that would have unseated most men with no saddle between their legs.But Jim sat close and steady and only threw up his arm and gave a shout as the old horse tore down the hill a few miles an hour faster.

`D--n those cartridges,' said the tall trooper; `they always put too much powder in them for close shooting.Now, Dick Marston!' he went on, putting his revolver to my head, `I'd rather not blow your brains out before your people, but if you don't put up your hands by ---- I'll shoot you where you stand.' I had been staring after Jim all the time;I believe I had never thought of myself till he was safe away.

`Get your horses, you d----d fools,' he shouts out to the men, `and see if you can follow up that madman.He's most likely knocked off against a tree by this time.'

There was nothing else for it but to do it and be handcuffed.

As the steel locks snapped I saw mother standing below wringing her hands, and Aileen trying to get her into the house.

`Better come down and get your coat on, Dick,' said the senior constable.

`We want to search the place, too.By Jove! we shall get pepper from Sir Ferdinand when we go in.I thought we had you both as safe as chickens in a coop.Who would have thought of Jim givin' us the slip, on a barebacked horse, without so much as a halter? I'm devilish sorry for your family; but if nothing less than a thousand head of cattle will satisfy people, they must expect trouble to come of it.'

`What are you talking about?' I said.`You've got the wrong story and the wrong men.'

`All right; we'll see about that.I don't know whether you want any breakfast, but I should like a cup of tea.It's deuced slow work watching all night, though it isn't cold.We've got to be in Bargo barracks to-night, so there's no time to lose.'

It was all over now -- the worst HAD come.What fools we had been not to take the old man's advice, and clear out when he did.He was safe in the Hollow, and would chuckle to himself -- and be sorry, too --when he heard of my being taken, and perhaps Jim.The odds were he might be smashed against a tree, perhaps killed, at the pace he was going on a horse he could not guide.

They searched the house, but the money they didn't get.

Jim and I had taken care of that, in case of accidents.

Mother sat rocking herself backwards and forwards, every now and then crying out in a pitiful way, like the women in her country do, I've heard tell, when some one of their people is dead;`keening', I think they call it.Well, Jim and I were as good as dead.

If the troopers had shot the pair of us there and then, same as bushmen told us the black police did their prisoners when they gave 'em any trouble, it would have been better for everybody.

However, people don't die all at once when they go to the bad, and take to stealing or drinking, or any of the devil's favourite traps.

Pity they don't, and have done with it once and for all.

I know I thought so when I was forced to stand there with my hands chained together for the first time in my life (though I'd worked for it, I know that); and to see Aileen walking about laying the cloth for breakfast like a dead woman, and know what was in her mind.

The troopers were civil enough, and Goring, the senior constable, tried to comfort them as much as he could.He knew it was no fault of theirs;and though he said he meant to have Jim if mortal men and horses could do it he thought he had a fair chance of getting away.`He's sure to be caught in the long run, though,' he went on to say.`There's a warrant out for him, and a description in every "Police Gazette" in the colonies.

My advice to him would be to come back and give himself up.

It's not a hanging matter, and as it's the first time you've been fitted, Dick, the judge, as like as not, will let you off with a light sentence.'

So they talked away until they had finished their breakfast.

I couldn't touch a mouthful for the life of me, and as soon as it was all over they ran up my horse and put the saddle on.But I wasn't to ride him.

No fear! Goring put me on an old screw of a troop horse, with one leg like a gate-post.I was helped up and my legs tied under his belly.Then one of the men took the bridle and led me away.

Goring rode in front and the other men behind.

As we rose the hill above the place I looked back and saw mother drop down on the ground in a kind of fit, while Aileen bent over her and seemed to be loosening her dress.Just at that moment George Storefield and his sister rode up to the door.George jumped off and rushed over to Aileen and mother.I knew Gracey had seen me, for she sat on her horse as if she had been turned to stone, and let her reins drop on his neck.Strange things have happened to me since, but I shall never forget that to the last day of my miserable life.