第61章

They had drawn back for Mungeree, as was nearly all frontage and cold in the winter.He was the worst witness for us of the lot, very near.

He'd noticed everything and forgot nothing.

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* In the original text, the horizontal bar is represented by a capital "I"rotated 90 degrees, and a bit lower than centre -- but from the description, `--D' may be better, where the `--' represents the upright of the T in TD.

-- A.L., 1997.

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`Do you recognise either of the prisoners in the dock?' he was asked.

`Yes; both of 'em,' says he.I wish I could have got at him.

`I see the swell chap first -- him as made out he was the owner, and gammoned all the Adelaide gentlemen so neat.There was a half-caste chap with him as followed him about everywhere; then there was another man as didn't talk much, but seemed, by letting down sliprails and what not, to be in it.I heard this Starlight, as he calls hisself now, say to him, "You have everything ready to break camp by ten o'clock, and I'll be there to-morrow and square up." I thought he meant to pay their wages.I never dropped but what they was his men -- his hired servants -- as he was going to pay off or send back.'

`Will you swear,' our lawyer says, `that the younger prisoner is the man you saw at Adelaide with the cattle?'

`Yes; I'll swear.I looked at him pretty sharp, and nothing ain't likely to make me forget him.He's the man, and that I'll swear to.'

`Were there not other people there with the cattle?'

`Yes; there was an oldish, very quiet, but determined-like man -- he had a stunnin' dorg with him -- and a young man something like this gentleman -- I mean the prisoner.I didn't see the other young man nor the half-caste in court.'

`That's all very well,' says our lawyer, very fierce; `but will you swear, sir, that the prisoner Marston took any charge or ownership of the cattle?'

`No, I can't,' says the chap.`I see him a drafting 'em in the morning, and he seemed to know all the brands, and so on; but he done no more than I've seen hired servants do over and over again.'

The other witnesses had done, when some one called out, `Herbert Falkland,'

and Mr.Falkland steps into the court.He walks in quiet and a little proud;he couldn't help feeling it, but he didn't show it in his ways and talk, as little as any man I ever saw.

He's asked by the Crown Prosecutor if he's seen the bull outside of the court this day.

`Yes; he has seen him.'

`Has he ever seen him before?'

`Never, to his knowledge.'

`He doesn't, then, know the name of his former owner?'

`Has heard generally that he belonged to Mr.Hood, of Momberah;but does not know it of his own knowledge.'

`Has he ever seen, or does he know either of the prisoners?'

`Knows the younger prisoner, who has been in the habit of working for him in various ways.'

`When was prisoner Marston working for him last?'

`He, with his brother James, who rendered his family a service he shall never forget, was working for him, after last shearing, for some months.'

`Where were they working?'

`At an out-station at the back of the run.'

`When did they leave?'

`About April or May last.'

`Was it known to you in what direction they proceeded after leaving your service?'

`I have no personal knowledge; I should think it improper to quote hearsay.'

`Had they been settled up with for their former work?'

`No, there was a balance due to them.'

`To what amount?'

`About twenty pounds each was owing.'

`Did you not think it curious that ordinary labourers should leave so large a sum in your hands?'

`It struck me as unusual, but I did not attach much weight to the circumstance.I thought they would come back and ask for it before the next shearing.I am heartily sorry that they did not do so, and regret still more deeply that two young men worthy of a better fate should have been arraigned on such a charge.'

`One moment, Mr.Falkland,' says our counsel, as they call them, and a first-rate counsellor ours was.If we'd been as innocent as two schoolgirls he couldn't have done more for us.

`Did the prisoner Marston work well and conduct himself properly while in your employ?'

`No man better,' says Mr.Falkland, looking over to me with that pitying kind of look in his eyes as made me feel what a fool and rogue I'd been ten times worse than anything else.

`No man better; he and his brother were in many respects, according to my overseer's report, the most hard-working and best-conducted labourers in the establishment.'