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The Honor of the Road · Stingaree

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Chapter six of Stingery by E. W. Horning. This librovox recording is
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in the public domain. Read by Beeswax Candle The Honor of the Road.
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Sergeant Cameron was undressing for bed when he first heard the voices through the weatherboard
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walls. Less than a minute there was a knock at his door. He
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is mister Hardcastle from Razanna say. He says, he must see you at
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once. The juicy does what about? He says, he'll any tell you,
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but he's ridden over in three hours. If he looks like the dead,
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give him some whiskey, Tyler and tell him I'll be down in two
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ticks. So saying the gray bearded sergeant of the New South Wales Mounted Police,
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tucked the nightgown into his cord breeches, slipped into his tunic, and
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hastened to the parlor, which served as court room on occasion, buttoning as
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he went. Mister Hardcastle had a glass to his lips. As the sergeant
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entered. Was a very fine man of forty and as bass of Fray,
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was crowned with a countenance as handsome as it was open and bold. But
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at a glance it was plain that he was both shaken and exhausted, and
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in no mood to hide either his fatigue or his distress. Sergeant Cameron sat
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down on the other side of the oval table with the faded cloth. The
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younger constable had left the room when Hardcastle called him back. Don't go,
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Tyler said he you may swell both. Hear what I've got to say.
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It's it's Stingerye. The name was echoed at in incredulous undertones. But he's
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down, and vic urged the sergeant. He's been giving our chaps a devil
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of a time down there. He's gone back. I've seen him with my
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own eyes, but I'm beginning at the wrong end. First, said the
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squatter, taking another sip, then sitting back to survey his hearers. You
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know old Duncan, my overseer. The sergeant nodded, of course, you
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know him, The other continued, So do as the whole back country.
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That even before he won this fortune in the Merlwyn Cups sweep. I suppose
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you've heard how he took the news. He was fuddling himself from his own
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bottle on Sunday afternoon when the mail came. First I knew it was when
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I saw him, sitting with his letter in his hand and throwing out the
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rest of his growl with the other. Then he told us he had won
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the first prize of thirty thousand, that he'd made up his mind of his
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next drink in his own place in Scotland. He left us that afternoon to
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catch the coach and go down to Sydney for his money. You ought to
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be him back this evening before sundown, the sergeant put in his word.
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Then he ought for I saw him come off the coach and start for the
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station as soon as they'd run up the horse he'd left behind him at the
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pub. I wondered what had brought him if he was so set on getting
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back to the old country. I could tell you, said Hardcastle, after
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some little hesitation, and I may as well. Poor old Duncan was most
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generous. Then nothing would serve him but that for every soul and Rosanna should
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share more or less in his good fortune. I'm ashamed to tell you how
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much he spoke of pressing on myself. We have probably heard that one of
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his peculiarities was that he would never take payment by check like other people,
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And I believe it was because he had knocked down too many checks in his
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day. In any case, we used to call him hard cash Duncan on
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Rosanna, And I'm very much afraid that when you saw him, he must
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have had the whole of his thirty thousand pounds upon him, and the hardest
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form of cash. But what has happened, mister Hardcastle, the very worst,
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said Hardcastle, stooping to sip. The three heads came closer together across
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the faded tablecloth. There was no sign of them at seven. You ought
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to have been with us before six. We'd done our best to make an
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occasion, and it seemed that the dinner would be spoiled. So at seven
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young Evans my stalk the Earl went off at a gallop to meet him,
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and at twenty five passed he came galloping back, leading a Ridles's horse as
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the one you saw Duncan riding this afternoon. There was blood upon the saddle,
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and I found it then with another Oh, it found the poor old
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boy himself dead and cold in the middle of the track, with a bullet
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through his heart. The squatter's voice trembled with an emotion that did him honor.
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In his hearer's eyes, the gray bearded sergeant waited a little before asking
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questions, what makes you think it a stingerree? He inquired at length.
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Early, I saw him on the run with my own eyes this morning,
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and I passed him on one of my paddocks as close as I am to
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you, and asked him if he was looking for the homestead. He aswerd
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that he was only riding through, and we neither of us stopped. But
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you knew all the time that it was stingery. No, to be quite
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honest, replied Hardcar, I never dreamt of it at the time, but
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now I'm quite pozzive on the point. He hadn't his eye glass in his
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eye, but it was dangling on its court all right. There was the
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cold mustache, and the boots and breeches that one knows all about if one
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has never seen them for oneself. Yet I own it didn't dawn em me
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just then, having to be thinking of the stations round about and wondering if
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they were as burnt up as we are. When I met this swell,
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I simply took him for a new charm on one or other of them.
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There had been robbery, of course, an absolute clearance, said Hardcastle.
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The valise had been cut to ribbons with a knife, and its other contents
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were strewn all about. A pocket book we found still bouldering for the roll
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of notes which had been taken out. I waited beside him on evans went
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back for the buggy, and when they started to take him in, I
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rode on to you. We'll ride back with you at once, said the
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sergeant, and find you a fresh horse if your own has had enough run
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up the lot Tyler and mister Cardcastle can take his choice. Seems clear enough,
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continued Cameron, as the trooper disappeared. But this is in you departure
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for stingery, the very thing that everybody said he would never do, And
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that's the logical climax of his career. Might have happened long ago. But
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it's not as first blood as it is, argued Hardcastle, when he had
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drained his glass. Didn't he wing one of you down in Victoria the other
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day? Your bush ranger is bound to come to it sooner or later.
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He may much prefer not to shoot. He's only got to get up against
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a man of his own caliber as Resulueton, as well armed as himself to
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have no choice in the matter. Poor old Duncan was the very type he
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would never have given way. In fact, he found him with his own
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revolver fast in his hand and a finger frozen to the trigger, and not
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a chamber discharged. Yes, that that settles. It must have been foul
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play, cried Cameron, earning a doubt in its dismissal. And we mustn't
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lose a single minute in getting on those Blaggard's tracks. And it was midnight
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before the little cavalcade set out upon a ride of over thirty miles. For
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arrangements had to be made for a telegram to be sent to the Glen Randolph
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coroner first thing in the morning, and to ensure this it was necessary to
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disturb the postmaster, who occupied one of the three weather board dwellings was constituted
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the roadside hamlet of Clear Corner, a round moon topped the sand hills.
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As the trio rode away, it was near its almost dazzling zenith when they
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rained up at the scene of the murder. This was at a point where
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the sandy track ran through a belt of scrub. The sergeant got off to
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examine the ground with Hardcastle, while Tyler mounted guard in the saddle, but
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nothing of importance was discovered by the pair on foot, and nothing seen or
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heard by their mounted comrade. They found the stations a stir and faintly aglow
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in the veiled daylight of the moon. Cluster of the men stood in a
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glare at the door of their hut, the traveler's heart betrayed the like symptoms
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of excitement. At the kitchen door were more men with pannikins and odd glimpses
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of a fire lit, white capped face within, But on the broad veranda
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sat two young men with their backs to a closed and darkened window, And
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beyond the window lay all that remained of an elderly man, whose brown,
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gnarled face was scarcely recognizable by the newcomers in its strange smooth pallor, but
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his grizzled beard weirdly familiar and still crisp with lingering life. The coroner arrived
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in some thirty hours, which had brought forth nothing new. His jury was
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drawn from the men's hut and rabbit as tents, and after a prolonged but
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inconclusive investigation, the inquest was adjourned for a week, but the seven days
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were as barren as the first, and a verdict against some person unknown a
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foregone result. This did not satisfied the many, who were positive that they
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knew the person, for Stingaree had been seen a hundred miles lower down,
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doubtless on his way back to Victoria, with his appearance altered in a telltale
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manner. But the coroner thought he knew better than anybody else, and had
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his way, notwithstanding the manifest feeling on the long Verandah when he held his
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court, So jurors and spectators drifted back to hut and tent and neighboring station.
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The coroner started in his buggy for Glenn Ranold, and last of all
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the police departed, leading the horse which Hardcastle had ridden home from their barracks,
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leaving him at peace once more with his two young men. But on
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the squatter the time had told. His table had been full to overflowing through
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it all, and he sank into a long chair a trifle grare at the
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temples, a thought looser in his dress, as the puggarees of Cameron and
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Tyler fluttered out of sight. I think we might ever drink, he said,
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with a wry smile to Evans, who fetched the decanter the store.
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The jackaroo was called from a stable to become Augean during the week, when
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the three were still mildly tippling, the store keeper came to his feet.
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Good lord, cried he, I thought we'd seen the last of the plucky
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police. You don't mean to say they're coming back. I do worse luck
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Cameron Tyler and some new joker and playing clothes. Hardcastle finished his drink with
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a resigned smile, stood on the verandah to receive the intruders. After all,
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we'll stave off the reaction. I he had to feel. The moment
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they had turned their backs said he. Oh well, well thought I'd just
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got rid of you fellows, and back you come like base Coin. Doesn't
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blame us, said the sergeant first to Dismount. We couldn't know that Superintendent
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Cairns had been sent up from Sydney, much less that we would ride right
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unto em in your horse paddock. The squalor had stepped down from the and
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with polite alacrity. Glad to see you, mister Kent's said he only wish
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you had come before. The creature in the plain clothes looked about him with
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a dry smile and a sharp eye upon the younger men and the empty glasses,
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as he and the sergeant accompanied Hardcastle to the verandah, while Tyler took
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charge of the three horses. The fame of Cairns had traveled before him to
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Rosanna. That none had been prepared for a figure so weird for a countenance,
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so forbidding him a line, his manners were equally uncouth. He shook
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his bent head to decline refreshment. He pointedly ignored a generalization of Hardcastles about
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the crime, and when he spoke it was in a gratuitously satirical style of
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his own. May I ask mister Hardcastle if he were the owner or the
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manager of this lodge in a howling wilderness? I am sorry to his own
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both. I appreciate the sorrow I failed to discern a single green blade as
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I came upon. Will depend on salt bush and the like, in spite
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of which I believe you have had several lean years. There is no denying
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it. I am sorry to be one of so many intruders in such a
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season, mister Hardcastle, but I should not trouble you long. I hope
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to take the murderer to night Stillery. Not quite so loud, please,
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who else should you? Suppose? You may be interested to hear that he's
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been hiding on your run for several days, and so have I within fairly
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easy reach of him. But he is not a man to be taking single
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handed without further loss of life. So I intercepted you, sergeant, and
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now you are both enlightened to night. With your assistance and that of your
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young colleague, I count upon a bloodless victory. But I should prefer you,
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mister Hardcastle, not to mention the matter to the very young men whom
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I noticed in your accompany on my arrival. Have I your promise to comply
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with my wishes on this point and on any other which may arise in connection
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with the capture misstereely glitter shot through the beetling eyebrows a Hardcastle had given his
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word before the request was rounded to that pedantic neatness which characterized the crabbed utterances
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of the ground shouldered dictator. That is well, he went on, For
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now I can admit you both into my plan of campaign. Suppose we sit
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down here on the verandah at the end farthest from any door. Be good
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enough to draw your chairs near a mind, gentleman, it might be dangerous
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if a fourth person heard me say that I had discovered the murderer's ill gotten
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hoarde, Not you, sir, cried Cameron. Good God, exclaimed the
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squatter, and the discoverer was not divine, indeed no human being, but
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myself. The bent man averred, turning with mischievous humor from one to the
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other of his astonished hearers. Yes, there was more gold than I would
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have credited, as Saint Scotchman was carrying through the wilds. But the bulk
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was in small notes, and the whole has been buried in the scrub close
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to the scene of the doubtless to avoid at once the detection and the division
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of such unusual spoil. You are thinking of his mate. It was Cameron
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who asked the question, but Hardcastle followed immediately with another. Did you remove
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the spoil? My dear mister Hardcastle, how you must lack the detective instinct.
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Of course, I left everything as nearly as possible as I found it.
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The van camps on the spot or very near it. He lights no
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fires and is careful to leave no marks. But I am more or less
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convinced of it, and that is where I shall take him to night,
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or rather early to morrow morning. I wish you could make it to night,
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said Hardcastle, with a yawn that put a period to a pause of
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some duration. Why, demanded the detective, raising open eyes for once,
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Because I have heard a desperate week of it, replied Hardcastle, and am
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dead with sleep. The other carried his growing geniality to the length of an
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all almost hearty laugh. My dear sir, do you suppose that I thought
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of taking you with us, No, mister Hardcastle. The risks of this
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sort of enterprise are for those who are paid to run them. If there
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is a risk, if we timed our attack too early or too late,
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there would be bloodshed, to a certainty. But at two o'clock the average
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man is fast asleep, and a quarter after one. Therefore I start with
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Sergeant Cameron and Constable Tyler. Hardcastle yawned again. I should have liked to
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be with you. There are compensations, said he. I doubt if I
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shall even stay up to see you off. If you did, you would
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sit up alone, returned the superintendent. I intend to turn myself for three
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or four hours that will be in the face of all my wishes, Sergeant,
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if you and Tyler do not do the same, no reason to tell
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em what a short night it's to be. It might prevent a young fellow
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like that from getting any sleep at all. Merely, let it be arranged
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that we all turn in betimes in view of an early start. We three
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alone need know how early the start will be. They had their simple dinner
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at half past seven, when the detective took it on himself to entertain the
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party, and succeeded so well that the entertainment was continued on the verandah for
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the better part of another hour. Doubled up in his chair, abnormal weird,
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he recounted in particular the exploits of stingery, including a garbled version of
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the recent fiasco across the Murray, with a zest only equaled by his confident
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undertaking to avenge the death of Robert Duncan. Before another day was out.
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All listened in a rapt silence, and the younger men were duly disappointed when
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the party broke up prematurely between nine and ten, But they also had played
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their part in a fatiguing week by the later hour, all were in their
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rooms. Before very long Rosanna station lay lighted only by the full white moon
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of New South Wales. Cameron wondered if it could possibly be two o'clock,
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while Tyler sat up, insensate with the full weight of his first sleep.
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When their chief crept into the double beded room which the two policemen had been
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put he earned himself before his time by an hour or more, but explained
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that he had an idea which had only struck him as he was about to
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fall asleep. If we hunt for the fellow in the dark, said he,
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we make him the alarm before we come on him. But if we
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go now, there is at least a chance that we may find his fire
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to guide us. I am aware, I said he wouldn't like one,
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but everybody knows that Stingery uses a spirit lamp. In any case, it's
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a chance. With a desperate man like that, we can't afford to give
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the ghost of a chance away. The sergeant dressed without more ado as to
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his subordinate, on learning the nature of their midnight Errand meanwhile, the disturber
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of slumbers was gone to the horse yard to start saddling the others followed in
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a few minutes, and there was the horse yard overflowing with moonshine, but
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emptier like of man and beast. I wonder what's got em, murmured the
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bewildered sergeant, uneasily, old Harry, for all I care, muttered the
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other. Now, I'm no such nuts on him, if you ask me.
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There's a bit too much of him for my taste. In his secret
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breast, the sergeant entertained a similar sentiment, but he was too old an
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officer to breathe disaffection in the ear of his subaltern. He contented himself with
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a mild expression of his surprise at the conduct of the Sydney authorities, putting
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a towney over his head without so much as a word of notice. In
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such a towey, echoed Tyler. One you never heard of in your life
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before, and never will again. Speak for yourself, rejoined Cameron, irritated
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at the exaggeration of their case. I have heard of him ever since I
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joined the force, but he's a funny joke to have shoved over us.
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Living a little lunch back like that, Lewis heard that he was none the
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worse for what he couldn't help. And now I can understand it, said
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the sergeant, for he's not such a hunch. The men looked at each
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other in the moonlight, and the ugly word was never finished. A dozen
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hoofs were galloping upon them, their thunder muffled by the sandy road, and
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into the tank of moonshine came two horses, hounded by the detective bare back.
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On the third some one left the slip rails down, and they were
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all over the horse paddock. He panted, but it took a bridle and
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managed to catch one, and it was easy enough to run up to the
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other two. But even Constable Tyler thought the more of fair misshapen leader for
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the feet. There was now no time to be lost, for it approached
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midnight, but the trio was soon cantering through the horse paddock neck and neck,
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and the new day found them at the farther gate. The moon still
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poured unbroken brilliance upon that desert world of sandy stretches, tufted with salt bush
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and erratically overgrown with scrub. The shadow of the gate was as another gate
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lying ready to be hung. For each particular wire in the fence there was
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a thin black stripe upon the ground. The three passed through and came in
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quick time upon the edge of that scrub in which the crime had been committed.
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And here the chief called a halt. The two to name them must
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be on foot, said he. You can creep upon em on foot,
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as you never could with the horse, but I will remain mounted in the
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road and ride him down if show's fight. So the pair and puggarees walked
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on at either stirrup of their crooked chief, leaving the two horses tethered to
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a tree, till suddenly the whole party halted as one. They had rounded
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a bend in the road with great caution, for they all knew where they
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were, with only one of them was prepared for the position of the light
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which flashed into their eyes from the heart of the scrub. It was a
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tiny light set low upon the ground, yet it flashed through the forest like
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a diamond in a bundle of hay. It burnt no little distance from the
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track, for at a movement it was lost. But it was some hundreds
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of yards nearer the station than the scene of the murder. The chief whispered
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that this is where he had found the buried booty, and oh half the
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distance. He led the way, winding in and out among the trees,
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now throwing a leg across his horse's withers to avoid a bowl anon and bracing
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its neck to escape contact with the branches. It was long before they could
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discern anything but the light itself amid the trunks and branches of the scrub.
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Suddenly the horseman stopped, beckoning with his free hand to the pair of foot
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pointing at the fire with the one that held the reins. As they crept
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up to him, he stooped in the stirrups till his mouth was close to
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the sergeant's ear. He's sitting on the far side of the light, but
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you can't see his face. I thought he was a log, and I
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still believe he's asleep. Creep on him like cats till he looks up.
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Then rushing with your revolve was before he can draw his. And I'll support
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you with mine nearer and nearer stole Cameron and Tyler. The rider managed to
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coax a few more noiseless steps from his clever munt, but dropped the reins
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and squared as elbows some twenty paces from the light. The hurricane lamp now
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in the sharpest focus. The policeman crawled some yards ahead. All three carried
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revolver in hand, but still the unsuspecting figure sat motionless, his chin upon
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his chest, the brim of his wide awake, hiding his face. A
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leap of gold and notes before him on the ground. Then the Superintendent's horse
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flung up its head, its teeth champed upon the bit. The man sat
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bolt upright, and the light of the hurricane lamp fell full upon the face
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of hard Castle. The squatter Russian, Russian. That's the man we want.
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But the momentary stupefaction of the police had given hard Castle as an opportunity.
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Hurricane lamp flew between them, going out where it fell, and for
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a minute the revolver was spat harmlessly in the remaining patchwork of moonshine and shadow,
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yet behind trees. Shoot low, don't kill him, shouted the chief
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from his saddle. Go on to him before he can load again. That's
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it, pin him. Throw your revolvers away or a statch one before you
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know where you are. Ah thought he was too strong for you, mister
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Hardcastle. I'll put a bullet through myself if you don't instantly surrender, And
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the fight ended with the bent man leaning in his stirrups over a lock and
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swaying group as he brandished his revolver to suit deed to word. It was
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a heavy load with a long barrel that finally turned the scale. In a
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few seconds, Hardcastle stood a prisoner, the handcuffs fitting his large wrists like
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gloves, his great frame panting from the fray. Yet a marvel of monstrous
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manhood and its stoical and defiant carriage. Lord's sake, Cairns, do what
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you say, he cried, Put three bullets through me, and divide what's
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on the ground between you now, for which we could, for your sake,
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was the reply. But it's idle to speak of it. And I'm
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afraid you've committed a crime that places you beyond the reach of sympathy that he
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has, cried, the sergeant wiping blood from his gray beard. It's plain
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as a pike staff now. And to think he was the one to come
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and fetch us the very night he'd done it. But what licks me more
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than anything is how in the world you found about, sir. The hunchback
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looked down upon the storewar prisoner standing up to his last inch between his two
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captors. There was an impersonal interest in the man's bold eyes that invited a
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statement more eloquently than the sergeant's tongue. I will tell you, said the
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horseman, smiling down upon the three on foot. In the first place,
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I had my own reasons for knowing that Stingery was nowhere near this place on
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the night of the murder, For I happened to have been on his tracks
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for some time. Who knew all about the dead man's stroke of luck,
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his insane preference for hard cash the time of his return. Mister Hardcastle,
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for one who swore that he had met Stingaree face to face upon the run.
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Mister Hardcastle alone, there was not to sew to corroborate or contradict him,
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who was in need of many thousand pounds, mister Hardcastle, as I
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suspected, and as he practically admitted to me when we discussed the bad season
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on my arrival. I was pretty sure of my man before I crossed the
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boundary fence. But I was absolutely convinced before I had spent twenty minutes on
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his verandah. The prisoner smiled sardonically in the moonlight. The policeman gazed with
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awe upon the man who had solved a nine days mystery and fewer hours.
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Must remember, he continued, that I have spent some days and nights upon
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the run. During the days I have camped in the thickest scrub I could
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find. But by night I've been very busy, And last night I had
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a stroke of luck. I stumbled by accident on a track that led me
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to the place I had been looking for all along. You see, I
26:03
had put myself in Hardcastle's skin, and I was quite clear that I should
26:07
have buried a lapful of gold and notes somewhere in the bush until the hue
26:11
and cry had blown over, not that I expected to find it so near
26:15
the scene of the crime. I should certainly have gone farther afield myself.
26:19
But I can't make out why that wasn't enough for you, sir, ventured
26:23
the sergeant deferentially. Why didn't you come in and arrest him on that you
26:27
shall see in three minutes? Wasn't it better to catch him red handed?
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As we have will at least admit that it was far Neto, I say,
26:37
I have the place I say, we are all going to it at
26:38
two in the morning. I say, let as sleep till a little after
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one. Was it not obvious what would happen? The only thing I did
26:48
not expect was to find him asleep with a swag under his nose. Then
26:52
Hardcastle spoke up. I was not asleep, said he. I thought I
26:56
was safe for an hour or two. I began to think. I was
27:02
wondering what to do, whether to cut my throat at once? And his
27:07
dreadful voice died away like a single chord struck in an empty room. That
27:11
Stagnaree put in Tyler at the end, what's happened to him? He also
27:18
has been here, but he was many a mile away at the time.
27:21
What brought him here? The crooked superintendent from Sydney was sitting strangely upright in
27:26
his saddle. His face was not to be seen, for his back was
27:30
to the moon, but he seemed to rub one of his eyes. You
27:34
may have wished to clear his character. He mayvich to uphold the honor of
27:37
that road of which he considers himself a not imperfect night. He may have
27:42
found it so jolly easy to play policeman down a Victoria that he couldn't resist
27:47
another shot in a better cause up here at his worst, he never killed
27:51
a man in all his life, and you will be good enough to take
27:53
his own word for it that he never will. He had backed his horse
27:57
while he spoke. He turned a little to the light, and the eye
28:02
glass gleamed in his eye. The young constable sprang forward, sting away.
28:07
He screamed, but the gray sergeant flung his arms round their prisoner. That's
28:14
right, cried the bush ranger. He trotted off. Your horses, and
28:18
even your pistols are out of reach, thanks to a discipline for which I
28:21
love you dearly. You hang on to your bird in the hand. My
28:23
friends never again misjudged the one in the bush. And as the trees swallowed
28:30
the cantering horse and man, followed by a futile shot from the first revolver
28:34
which the young constable had picked up, an embittered admiration kindled in the captive
28:40
murderer's eyes. End of chapter six