Latest / Stingaree / The Moth and The Star

Transcript

The Moth and The Star · Stingaree

• 0:01
  Chapter ten of Stingery by E. W. Horning. This Liberox recording is
• 0:05
  in the public domain. Read by Beeswax. Scandal, the Moth and the
• 0:10
  Star, Part one, Dyninghurst jail had never ammeurred a more interesting prisoner than
• 0:16
  the back Block bandit, who was tried and convicted under the strange style and
• 0:20
  title which he had made his own. Not even in prison was his real
• 0:24
  name ever known, And the wild speculations of some imaginative officials were nothing else
• 0:30
  up to the end. There was enough color in their wildness, however,
• 0:34
  to crown the convict with a certain halo of romance, which his behavior in
• 0:39
  jail did nothing to dispel. That, of course, was exemplary, since
• 0:44
  Stingery had never been a fool, But it was something more and rarer,
• 0:49
  Not content simply to follow the line of least resistance, he exhibited from the
• 0:53
  first to spirit in a philosophy unique indeed beneath the broad arrow, and so
• 0:58
  far from decreasing the years of his captivity. These attractive qualities one and friend
• 1:03
  after friend among the officials, and privilege upon privilege at their hands, while
• 1:07
  amply justifying the romantic interest in his case. At last, they came to
• 1:14
  Sydney a person more capable of an acute appreciation of the heroic villain than his
• 1:18
  most ardent admirer on the spot. Lucius Brady was a long haired irishman of
• 1:23
  letters, bard and bookworm, rebel and reviewer in his ample leisure. He
• 1:30
  was also the most enthusiastic criminologist in London, and as president of an exceedingly
• 1:34
  esoteric society for the Cultivation of criminals. Even from London did he come for
• 1:40
  a pre arranged series of interviews with the last and the most distinguished of all
• 1:45
  the bush Rangers. It was the Lucius Brady his biographer to be that Stingery
• 1:52
  confided the data of all the misdeeds recounted in these pages, but of his
• 1:56
  life during the quiet intervals, of his relations with confess and his more honest
• 2:00
  dealings with honest folk, of which many a pretty tale was rife. He
• 2:06
  was not to be persuaded to speak without an irritating reserve. Keeped my points
• 2:10
  of contact with the world, but which something is known or ready, and
• 2:15
  you shall have the whole truth of the matter, said the convict. But
• 2:21
  I don't intend to give away the altogether unknown. I doubt if it would
• 2:24
  interest you if I did. The most interesting thing to me has been the
• 2:29
  different types of whom I have had. What it pleases you to determ professional
• 2:34
  relations, and the very different ways in which they have taken me. You
• 2:38
  read character by flashlight along the barrel of your revolver. What you should do
• 2:44
  is to hunt up my various victims and get at their point of view.
• 2:47
  You really mustn't press me to hark back to mine, as it is you
• 2:52
  bring a whiff to the outer world which makes me bruise my wings against the
• 2:55
  bars. The criminologist gloated over such speeches from such lips would have touched another
• 3:02
  to note what an irresistible fascination the bars had for the wings despite all pain.
• 3:08
  But Lucius Brady's interest and stingery was exclusively intellectual. His heart, ever,
• 3:15
  ached for a roving spirit, and confinement did not occur to him to
• 3:20
  suppress a detail of his own days in Sydney. Dounted the attractions in an
• 3:23
  Italian restaurant he had discovered near the jail, the flavor of the chianti,
• 3:28
  and so forth. On the contrary, it was the most interesting to note
• 3:32
  the play of features in the tortured man, who, after all brought us
• 3:37
  torture on himself by asking so many questions. Soon, when his visitor left
• 3:42
  him, the bond man could follow the free in all but the flesh,
• 3:46
  through every corridor of the prison and every street outside, to the hotel where
• 3:51
  you read the English papers on the verandah, or to the little restaurant where
• 3:55
  the chianti was corked with oil, which the waiter removed with a wisp of
• 3:59
  tar. One day, late in the afternoon, as Lucius Brady was beaming
• 4:03
  on him through his spectacles and indulging the decisive criticism of the Champagne at Government
• 4:09
  House, Stingery quietly garrotted him. The gag was an all readiness. Likewise,
• 4:15
  strips of coarse sheeting, torn up for the purpose in the night,
• 4:17
  blackened the face, but with breath still in his body, the criminologist was
• 4:21
  carefully gagged and tied down to the bedstead, while his living image, at
• 4:27
  a casual glance, strolled with bent head, black sombrero, spectacles and frock
• 4:31
  coat, first through the cold corridors and presently along the streets. The heat
• 4:36
  of the pavement striking to his souls, was the first of a hundred exquisite
• 4:41
  sensations. But Stingery did not permit himself to save one of them. Indeed,
• 4:46
  he had his work cut out to check the pace's heart dictated. It
• 4:50
  was by admirable exercise of the will that he wandered along deep to all appearance
• 4:56
  of a camelot classic, which he had found in the Criminologist's pocket, in
• 5:00
  reality, blinded by the glasses, but all the more vigilant out the corners
• 5:05
  of his eyes. A suburb was the scene of these perambulations. Had he
• 5:11
  but dared to lift his face, Stingery might have caught a glimpse of the
• 5:14
  bluest of blue water, and his prison eyes hungered for the sight. But
• 5:18
  he would not raise his eyes so long as footsteps sounded on the same pavement.
• 5:25
  By taking judicious turnings, however, he drifted into a quiet road with
• 5:29
  gray suburban bungalows on one side and building lots on the other. No step
• 5:34
  approached he could look up at last, and the very bungalow that he was
• 5:40
  passing was shut up yet furnished. The people had merely gone away, servants,
• 5:44
  and all he saw it at a glance from the newspapers plastering the windows,
• 5:47
  which caught the sun. In an instant he was in the garden,
• 5:51
  and in another he had forced the side gate leading by an alley to backyard
• 5:56
  and kitchen door. But for many minutes he went no further this gate,
• 6:00
  behind which he cowered, prepared with excuses in case he had already been observed.
• 6:05
  It was in this interval that Stingery recalled the season with a thrill,
• 6:10
  for it was Christmas week, and without a doubt the house would be empty
• 6:14
  till the new year. Here was one port for the storm that must follow
• 6:18
  his escape. In a very pleasant port he found it, on entering after
• 6:23
  duke precautionary delay. Clearly the abode of young married people. The bungalow was
• 6:30
  filled and furnished with a taste which appealed almost painfully to Stingery. The drawing
• 6:35
  room was draped in sheets, but the walls carried a few good engravings,
• 6:40
  some of which he remembered with a stab. It was the dressing room,
• 6:43
  however, that he wanted, and the dressing room made and rub his hands.
• 6:47
  The dainty establishment had no more luxurious corner hot with a fitted bath,
• 6:53
  circular shaving glass, packed trouser press, a row of boots on trees,
• 6:59
  and a fine old wall ordrobe full of hanging coats. Stingrey began by selecting
• 7:03
  his suit. And it may have been his vanity or a strange longing to
• 7:06
  look for once what he had once been, but he could not resist the
• 7:11
  young man's excellent evening clothes. This fellow comes from home, said he,
• 7:16
  and they are spending their Christmas pretty far back. What he would have taken
• 7:21
  these with him. He had wallowed in the highly enameled bath and was looking
• 7:27
  for a towel when he saw his head in the shaving glass. He was
• 7:30
  dry enough before he could think of anything else. There was a dilemma obvious
• 7:36
  yet unforeseen, that shaven head, purple and fine linen could not disguise the
• 7:44
  convict's crop. A wig was the only hope to wear a weg. One
• 7:48
  must first try it on and let the peruchio call the police. The knot
• 7:55
  was gaudian, and yet desperately A. Stingery's sought onravelment was at the same
• 8:00
  time subconsciously as deep in a study of a face so unfamiliar that at first
• 8:05
  he had scarcely known it for his own twas far leaner than of old.
• 8:09
  It was no longer richly tanned, and the mouth caught louder than ever for
• 8:13
  a mustache. The hair, what there was of it, seemed iron gray.
• 8:20
  It had certainly receded at the temples. Good a pity. While it
• 8:24
  was about it, Stingery clapped his hands. His hunt for the rais was
• 8:28
  feverish, tremulous. Surely a young man must have many raises. He had
• 8:35
  he had, I hear they were, oh young man, blessed among young
• 8:39
  men. It was quite dark when a gentleman, in evening, closed light,
• 8:45
  over coat and an opera hat sailed forth into the quiet road. Quiet
• 8:50
  as it was. However, a whistle blow as he trod the pavement,
• 8:54
  and a hour or two of liberty seemed at an end. His long term
• 8:58
  and present a mixed stingeries ideas of the old country in the new. You'd
• 9:03
  forgotten that it is the postman who blowed the whistles in Australia. Yet this
• 9:07
  postman stopped him on the spot. Big pardon, sir, But if it's
• 9:11
  quite convenient, I ask you for the Christmas box. She was so kind
• 9:15
  enough to promise me. And I think you are mistaking me for some one
• 9:18
  else, said Stringery. Why so, I aim, sir, I thought
• 9:24
  you came out of mister Brinton's house. I'm sorry to disappoint you, said
• 9:28
  the convict. If only I had changed, you should have some of it
• 9:31
  in spite of your mistake, But unfortunately I have none. He had,
• 9:37
  however, a handsome pair of opera glasses, which he converted into change on
• 9:41
  the gurtuitous plea that he had forgotten his purse at the first pawnbrokers on the
• 9:45
  confines of the city. The pawn broker talked Greek to them at once.
• 9:50
  It's a pity you won't be out to see you, sir, as well
• 9:52
  as here, said he. Perhaps they have them on higher than the theater,
• 9:58
  replies Stingery. At adventure porn Broker's face instantly advised him that his observation
• 10:05
  was wide of the obscure mark the theater. You won't ear her at any
• 10:09
  theater in Sydney, nor yet in the Southern Hemisphere. Town Alls is the
• 10:13
  only lay for il de Bouvarie out here. At first the name conveyed nothing
• 10:18
  distingery, yet it was not wholly unfamiliar, of course, said he.
• 10:24
  The town hall, I meant, the pawn broker leered, as he put
• 10:28
  down a sovereign in a shilling. What a season she's having, said,
• 10:33
  Nah, what a season? Stingery wagged his opera hatted head. Hundreds of
• 10:39
  pounds worth of flowers flung onto every platform, and not a dry eye in
• 10:43
  the place I know, said the feeling Stingery. It's wonderful to think of
• 10:48
  this year colony producing the world's best prima donna. It is, indeed,
• 10:56
  when you think of her start that's true. The pawn broker leaned across his
• 11:01
  counter and leered more than ever into his customer's face. They say she ain't
• 11:05
  no better than she ought to be. Really, it's right too, But
• 11:11
  what can you expect of a prima donna whose fortune was made by a bloodthirsty
• 11:16
  bush range like that? The stingaree, you little scurrilous wretch, cried the
• 11:22
  bushranger, and flung out of the shop that instant. It was a miracle,
• 11:28
  he remembered everything. Now then he had done the world of service as
• 11:33
  well as the woman. He gave thanks for the guinea in his pocket,
• 11:37
  and asked his way into the town hall. As he marched down the middle
• 11:39
  of the lighted streets, the first flock of newsboys came flying in his face.
• 11:43
  Escape if Stingaree, Escape if Stingaree, cowardly outrage on famous author,
• 11:50
  Escape if Stingaree. The damp pink papers were in the hands of the overflow
• 11:56
  crowd outside the hall. His own name was already in every mouth, continually
• 12:00
  coupled with that of the world renowned Hilda Bouvorrye. Did not deter the convict
• 12:05
  from elbowing his way through the mass that gloated over his deed exactly as they
• 12:09
  would have gloated over his destruction on the gallows. I have my ticket,
• 12:13
  I have been detained, he told the police, and at the last light
• 12:16
  of fancy whispered new guinea the standing room, and the guinea got it.
• 12:22
  It was the interval between parts one two. He thought of that other interval,
• 12:28
  when he had made such a different entry at the same juncture, the
• 12:31
  other concert rome would have gone some fifty times into this. All at once
• 12:35
  fell a hush, and then a rising thunder of applause, and some one
• 12:39
  requests a stingery to remove his hat. He did so, and a cold
• 12:45
  creeping of the shaven flesh reminded him of his general position and of this particular
• 12:50
  peril, that no one took any notice of him or of his head.
• 12:54
  And it was not Hilda Bouvory this time, who was a pianiste in violent,
• 12:58
  magi enter and elaborate lace, whose performance was also loud and embroidered.
• 13:05
  Followed a beautiful young baritone whom Misservery had brought from London in her pocket for
• 13:11
  the tour. He sang three little songs, very charmingly, indeed, but
• 13:16
  there was no one care. The guards were burning for their own. Her
• 13:20
  functory plaudence died to a dramatic pause. And then, and then, amid
• 13:28
  deafening selvos, a dazzling vision appeared upon the platform. Came forward with the
• 13:33
  carriage of a conscious queen, stood bowing and beaming, the gloss and glitter
• 13:39
  of fabric and of gem that were yet less radiant than herself. Stingery stood
• 13:43
  inanimate tween stamping feet and clapping hands. No, he never would have connected
• 13:52
  this magnificent woman with the simple bush girl of the unpretentious frocks that he recalled
• 13:56
  as clearly as her former self, yet looked for less finery, less physical
• 14:01
  development less, indeed is the grand operatic tootensemble. But acting ended with her
• 14:09
  smile, and much of the old, innocent simplicity came back as the lips
• 14:13
  parted in song. And her song had not been spoilt by riches and adulation.
• 14:20
  The song had not sacrificed sweetness to artifice. There was even more than
• 14:24
  the old magic in her song. Is this a dream? Then waking would
• 14:31
  be pain? Oh, do not wake me, Let me dream again.
• 14:37
  Tres no new number. Even then, even Stingaree had often heard it,
• 14:43
  and heard great singers go the least degree flat on the first dream. He
• 14:48
  listened critically. Hilda Bervarie was not one of the delinquents. Her intonation was
• 14:54
  as perfect as that of the great violinists. Her high notes had that rare
• 15:00
  i'd qualities, the ease string finely touched. It was a flawless, if
• 15:05
  a purely popular performance, and the musical heart of one listener in that crowded
• 15:09
  room was too full for mere applause. But he waited with patient curiosity for
• 15:16
  the encore, waited while curtesy. After curtesy was given in vain, she
• 15:22
  had to yield. She yielded with a winning grace, and the first bars
• 15:28
  of the new song set one full heart beating, so that the earlier words
• 15:33
  were lost upon his brain. She ran before me in the meads, and
• 15:37
  down this world worn track. She leads me on. For while she leads,
• 15:43
  she never gazes back. And yet her voice is in my dreams to
• 15:48
  witch me more and more, that wooing voice, ah me, it seems
• 15:54
  less near me than of yore. Lightly I spared when hope was high and
• 16:00
  youth beguiled the chess I follow follow still, but I shall never see her
• 16:07
  face till the song ended. And in the ultimate quiet, the need of
• 16:11
  speech came over Stingery the unrealized ideal. He informed a neighbor ra there rejoined
• 16:19
  the man, treating the stale news as a mere remark. We never let
• 16:23
  her off without that, I suppose not, said Stingery. It's the song
• 16:29
  the bush ranger forced her to sing at the back block concert, and it
• 16:32
  made her fortune. Good old sting Eye by the way, or heard somebody
• 16:37
  behind me say he'd escaped. That can't be true, and the newsboys were
• 16:42
  yelling at as they came along. Late, Well, said Stingarey's neighbor.
• 16:47
  If he has escaped, and I, for one don't hope he has end.
• 16:51
  This is where he ought to be, Just the sort of thing he'd
• 16:52
  do too, good old sportsman stingery. It was an embarrassing compliment. I
• 17:00
  I and foot to foot wedged in a crowd. The bush Range did not
• 17:03
  fish for anymore, or did he wait to hear Hilda Bouverie sing again,
• 17:08
  though this cost him much, but he had one more word with his neighbor
• 17:12
  before he went. You don't happen to know where she's staying. I suppose
• 17:17
  I've met her once or twice, and I might call theell smiled as on
• 17:22
  some suicidal moth. It's only one place good enough for a style like her,
• 17:26
  in Sydney, and that is Gumment House Part two. His Excellency of
• 17:34
  the moment was a young nobleman of sporting proclivities and your true sportsman breadth of
• 17:41
  mind. He was immensely popular with all sects and sections but the aggressively puritanical
• 17:47
  and the narrowly u steer. He graced the theater with his constant presence,
• 17:51
  the turf with his own horses. His entertainment was lavish and a quality far
• 17:56
  above the gubernatorial average late life, and so role of an exalted circle.
• 18:00
  He was high bound by few of the conventional trammels that distinguished the older type
• 18:06
  of peer to which the colonies had been accustomed. It was the obvious course
• 18:10
  for such a governor, and as kindred lady, to insist upon making the
• 18:14
  Great Miss Bovary their guest for the period of her professional surgeon of the Capitol,
• 18:18
  And a semi bohemian supper at the Government House was but a characteristic finale
• 18:23
  to her first great concert. The Prima Donna sat on the Governor's right,
• 18:29
  and at the proper point his Excellency sang her praise as in a charmingly informal
• 18:33
  speech, which delighted and amused the pressmen, actors and actresses whom he had
• 18:37
  collected for the occasion. Only the guest of honor looked a little weary and
• 18:42
  condescending. She had a sufficient experience of such entertainments in London, where the
• 18:48
  actors were all London actors. The author's journalists, men whose names one knew,
• 18:52
  mere peers, were no great treat either. In a word, Hido
• 18:57
  Boovori was not a little spoil. She had lost the girl's glad outlook on
• 19:03
  the world, which some women keep until old age. There were stories about
• 19:07
  her which would have accounted for a deeper deterioration. Yet she was the governor's
• 19:11
  guest, and her behavior not unworthy of the honor on him. At least
• 19:17
  she smiled, and her real smile less expansive than the platform counterfeit had still
• 19:22
  its genuine sweetness, its winning flashes, and at its worst was more sad
• 19:26
  than bitter. To night, the woman was an exhausted artist, unnerved,
• 19:33
  unstrung, unfitted for the world, yet only showing it in a languid appreciation,
• 19:37
  which her host and hostess were the first to understand. Indeed, was
• 19:41
  the great lady who carried her off, bowing with her platform bow and smiling
• 19:45
  that smile. Before the banquet was at an end, a charming suite of
• 19:49
  rooms had been placed at the disposal of the Prima donnor. The boudoir was
• 19:53
  like a hothouse, with the floral offerings of the evening already tastefully arranged by
• 19:59
  Madame's own Swiss maid. But the weary lady walked straight through to her bedroom
• 20:04
  and sank with her sigh into the armchair before the glass. Who brought this?
• 20:11
  She asked, peevishly, picking a twisted note from amid the golden furniture
• 20:17
  or her toilet table. I never saw it untill this minute, madame.
• 20:21
  The Swiss maid answered in dismay, does not there ten minutes ago? I
• 20:25
  am sure? In madame, where have you been since? Down to the
• 20:27
  servants hall for one minute? Madame missus Booverery read the note was an animated
• 20:34
  being. In three seconds she looked in the glass, the flush became her,
• 20:38
  and even as she looked, all horror dyed in her dark blue eyes
• 20:42
  instead became a glitter that warned the maid. I am tired of you,
• 20:47
  Lea cried, madame. You let people bring notes into my room, and
• 20:51
  you say you are only out of it for a minute. Be good enough
• 20:52
  to leave you for the night. I can look after myself for once.
• 20:56
  The maid protested, wept, but was expelled, and a key turned between
• 21:02
  them. Then Hilda Bovy read her note again. Let escape this afternoon came
• 21:07
  to your concert hiding in boudoir. Give me five minutes or raise alarm,
• 21:10
  which you please. Stingery so ran his words in pencil on her own paper,
• 21:15
  and they were true. She had heard at supper of the escape.
• 21:19
  Once more, she looked in the glass, and to her own eyes.
• 21:22
  In these minutes she looked years younger. There was a new sensation left in
• 21:27
  life. I touched her hair, a glance in the pier glass, and
• 21:33
  all for a notorious convict broken prison. So into the boudoir with her grandest
• 21:37
  air. But again she locked the door behind her, and sweeping round,
• 21:41
  beheld a bald man bowing to her in immaculate evening clothes. Are you the
• 21:48
  writer of a note found in my addressing table? She demanded, every syllable
• 21:52
  off the ice. I am, then who are you besides being an impudent
• 21:59
  forger? If you've named the one crime I never committed, said he,
• 22:03
  I am stingery. And they gazed into each other's eyes, But not yet
• 22:10
  were hers to be believed he only escaped this afternoon. I am he with
• 22:15
  a bald head thanks to a razor, and in those clothes I found them
• 22:21
  where I found the razor. Look, they don't fit me as well as
• 22:25
  they might. Then he drew nearer, flinging out an abbreviated sleeve. She
• 22:30
  looked all the harder in his face. Yes, I begin to remember your
• 22:36
  face, but it has changed. It has gazed on prison walls for many
• 22:41
  years. I heard. I was grieved, but it was bound to come.
• 22:48
  It may come again. I care very little after this, His dark
• 22:55
  eyes shone, his deep voice vibrated. Then he glanced over a shrug shoulder
• 23:00
  towards the outer door. He would have darted as if to turn that key,
• 23:03
  too, but there was none to turn. It ought to happen at
• 23:08
  once, she said, and through me, But it will not. His
• 23:14
  assurance annoyed her. She preferred his homage. I know what you mean,
• 23:19
  she cried, You did me a service years ago. I am not to
• 23:22
  forget it. It is not I who kept it before your mind. Perhaps
• 23:27
  not, but that's why you came to me. To night, Stingery looked
• 23:33
  upon the spirited, spoilt beauty in her satin and diamonds and pearls. Villain
• 23:37
  as he was, he held himself at her mercy. But he was not
• 23:41
  going to kneel to her for that. He saw a woman who had heard
• 23:45
  the truth from very few men, and nature grown and mastery as his own
• 23:49
  had inevitably shrunk. Twas worth being at large to put the old Adam still
• 23:55
  remaining to him against the old Eve. In this petted darling of the world,
• 24:00
  the false Protestations were no countess in his game. Miss Boovery, says
• 24:06
  Tingery. You may well suppose that I have borne you in mind all these
• 24:10
  years. As a matter of honest fact, when I first heard your name
• 24:15
  this evening, I was slow to connect it with any human being. You
• 24:18
  look angry. I intend no insult. If you have not forgotten the life
• 24:23
  I was leaving before, you would very readily understand that I never heard your
• 24:27
  name from those days to this. That is my misfortune, if also my
• 24:33
  own fault. It should suffice that when I did remember, I came at
• 24:37
  my peril to hear you sing, and that before I dreamt of coming an
• 24:42
  inch further. But I heard them say, both in the hall and outside,
• 24:47
  that you owed your start to me. Now one thinks of it must
• 24:52
  have been a rather striking advertisement. And I reflected that not another soul in
• 24:56
  Sydney can possibly owe me anything at all. So I came straight to you
• 25:00
  without thinking twice about it. Criminal as I have been and I am.
• 25:06
  I one thought was, and is that I deserve some little consideration at your
• 25:10
  hands. You mean money, I have not a penny to make all the
• 25:15
  difference to me, and I give you my word, if there is any
• 25:18
  satisfaction to you, there would be an honest man from this time forth.
• 25:22
  You actually asked me to assist a criminal and escaped convict. Me hire a
• 25:27
  Boovery at my own absolute risk. I took a risk for you nine years
• 25:33
  ago, Miss Boovery, tis all I did take, said Stingery. At
• 25:37
  the concert that made your name, and you rob it in. She told
• 25:41
  him, you rob it in. I'm running for my life, he exclaimed
• 25:47
  in answer. Wouldn't have been necessary, That would have been enough for the
• 25:52
  missus Boovery. I knew then, But you were different. You are another
• 25:56
  being. You are a woman of the world. Your heart, your heart
• 26:02
  is dead and gone. He cut her to it, none the less,
• 26:07
  he could not have inflicted a deeper wound. The blood leaped to her face
• 26:11
  and neck. She cried out of the insult, the indignity, the outrage
• 26:15
  of it all. And crying, she darted to the door. It was
• 26:19
  locked. She turned on Stingery. You dared to lock the door, You
• 26:25
  dared give me the key this instant I refuse very well. You have heard
• 26:30
  my voice. You shall hear it again. Her pale lips made the perfect
• 26:37
  round, her grand teeth gleamed in the electric light. He arrested her,
• 26:42
  not with violence, but a shrug. I shall jump out of the window
• 26:47
  and break my neck. They don't take me twice alive. She glared at
• 26:52
  him in anger and contempt. He meant it, then let him do it.
• 27:00
  Her eyes told him all that. But as they flashed, stabbing him,
• 27:03
  their expression notled, and in a trice her ear was to the keyhole.
• 27:07
  Something has happened, she whispered, turning a scared face up to him.
• 27:11
  I hear your name. They have traced you here, They are coming.
• 27:15
  Oh what are we to do? He strode over to the door.
• 27:21
  If you're a scandal, I can give myself up this moment and explain all,
• 27:25
  he spoke eagerly. The thought was sudden. She rose up, looking
• 27:29
  in his eyes. No you shall not, she said. Her hand flew
• 27:34
  out behind her, and in two seconds the brilliant room had click clicked into
• 27:38
  a velvet darkness. Stand like a mouse, she whispered, and he heard
• 27:44
  her reach the inner door, where she stood like another. Steps and voices
• 27:48
  came along the landing in a greick crescendo, Miss Bovery, Miss Bouverie,
• 27:53
  Miss Bouverie, It was his Excellency's own gay voice, and it continued until
• 28:00
  with much noise, Miss Boovererie flung her bedroom door wide open, put on
• 28:03
  the light within, ran across the boudoir, put on the boudoir light,
• 28:07
  and stopped a parley through the keyhole. The bush ranger Stingery has been traced
• 28:11
  to Government House. Good heavens, one of your windows were seen open.
• 28:18
  He has not come through it. Then you were heard raising your voice.
• 28:22
  That was to my maid. This is all through her. I don't know
• 28:26
  how to tell you, but she leaves me in the morning. Yes,
• 28:30
  yes there was a man, but it was not Stingeree. I saw him
• 28:34
  myself through, coming up early, but I let him go as he had
• 28:37
  come to save a fuss through the window. I am so ashamed, not
• 28:45
  a bit, miss booberye, I am ashamed for bothering you. Confound the
• 28:48
  police when the voices and steps had died away, Hulda Boovererie turned to Stingaree,
• 28:56
  her whole face shining, her deep blue eyes alight there she said,
• 29:00
  could you have done that better? Yourself? Not half so well? And
• 29:06
  you thought I could forget. I thought nothing only came to you in my
• 29:10
  scrape. After years of imprisonment, he could speak of as life and death
• 29:15
  hazard, as a scrape. She looked at him with admiring eyes, and
• 29:21
  personal triumph put an end to her indignation. My poor lear, I wonder
• 29:26
  how much she has heard. I shall have to tell her nearly all.
• 29:30
  She can wait for me at Melbourne Orradelaide, and I can pick her up
• 29:32
  at my voyage home. Will be no joke without her. Until then I
• 29:37
  give her up for your sake. Stingrey hung his head with a changed man.
• 29:42
  Then I, he said, grimly, not pathetically. I am a
• 29:47
  convict to escape by violence This afternoon, Hildrea smiled. I met mister Brady
• 29:55
  the other day, she said, and I heard of him to night.
• 29:57
  He is not going to die. He stared at her unscrupulous radiance. Do
• 30:03
  you wonder at me? She said? Did you never hear that musical people
• 30:07
  had no models? And her smile bewitched to Maud and more It explains us,
• 30:14
  both declared missus bouvery. But do you know what I have kept all
• 30:18
  these years? She went on? Do you know what has been my mascot?
• 30:22
  What I have had about me whenever I have sung in public since,
• 30:26
  and including that timing, yallarook? Can't you guess? He could not?
• 30:32
  She turned her back, he heard some gussots give, and the next moment
• 30:37
  she was holding a strange trophy in both hands, and was a tiny silken
• 30:41
  bandolier containing six revolver cartridges with bullet and cap intact. Can't you guess now,
• 30:49
  she gloried, No, I never missed them. They're not like any
• 30:53
  I ever had. Don't you remember the man who chased you out and misfired
• 30:57
  Atrow six times? He was the overseer on the station. His name may
• 31:02
  come back to me, but his face I shall never forget. He had
• 31:06
  a revolver in his pocket, but he dared not lower a hand. I
• 31:10
  took it out of his pocket and was to hand it up to him,
• 31:11
  and I got the chance. Until then I was to keep it under my
• 31:15
  shawl. That was when I managed to unload every chamber. These are the
• 31:19
  cartridges I took out. Had there been my mascot ever since? He looked
• 31:25
  years younger than she had seemed, even singing in the town hall. But
• 31:29
  the lines deepened on the bush Ranger's face, and he stepped back from her
• 31:33
  a pace. So you saved my life, he said. You had saved
• 31:37
  my life all the time, and yet I came to ask you to do
• 31:41
  as much for me as I had done for you. He turned away,
• 31:47
  his hands were clenched behind his back. I will do more, she cried,
• 31:51
  if more could be done by one person for another. Here are jewels,
• 31:56
  she stopped her neck of its rope of pearls. And here are notes.
• 32:00
  She dived into a bureau and thrust a handful upon him. With these
• 32:04
  alone, you should be able to get to England or America. And if
• 32:07
  you want more, when you get there, right to hil the Boovery's long
• 32:10
  as she has any, there will be some for you. Tears filled her
• 32:15
  eyes. The simplicity of her girlhood had come back to the seasoned woman of
• 32:22
  the world, at once spoiled and satiated with success. This was the other
• 32:29
  side of the artistic temperament which had enslaved her soul. She would swing from
• 32:32
  one extreme of wounded and vindictive vanity to this length of lawless nobility. Now
• 32:39
  she could think of none but self, and now not of herself at all.
• 32:45
  Stingery glanced toward the window. I can't go yet. I'm afraid you
• 32:52
  shan't. Why should you, But I still fear they may not be satisfied
• 32:55
  downstairs. I am ashamed to ask it, but will you do one little
• 33:00
  thing more for me? Name it? It is only to make assurance,
• 33:06
  doubly sure. Go downstairs and let them see you. Tell them more details
• 33:09
  if you like. Go down as you are and say that without your maid
• 33:13
  you could not find anything else to put on. I promised not to vanish
• 33:16
  with everything in your absence. You do promise on my liberty. She looked
• 33:23
  in his face with a very wistful sweetness. They were to find me out,
• 33:29
  she said. I wonder how many years they would give me. I
• 33:32
  neither know nor care. It would be worth a few. I thought I
• 33:37
  had lived since I slower you last, But this is the best fun I
• 33:40
  have ever had since Yellow Rook. She stood for a moment before opening the
• 33:46
  door that he dlocked for her, stood before him in all her flushed and
• 33:51
  brilliant radiance, and blew a kissed to him before she went. The governor
• 33:58
  was easily found. He was grieved at her troubling to descend at such an
• 34:01
  hour, and did not detain her five minutes in all, he thought she
• 34:06
  was in a fever, but that the fever became her beyond belief. Reassured
• 34:10
  on every point, Miss Boovery was back in her room, but a very
• 34:14
  few minutes after she had left it, it was empty. She searched all
• 34:20
  over, first behind the curtains, then between the pedestals of the bureau,
• 34:24
  but Stingery was nowhere in the room, and the bedroom door was still locked.
• 34:30
  There was a second look behind the curtains that revealed an open window in
• 34:34
  the scratch of a boot upon the white enamel. It was no break neck
• 34:37
  drop into the shrubs. So he had gone without a word, but also
• 34:43
  without breaking his word, for with wet eyes and a white face between anger
• 34:49
  and admiration, Hilda Bouverie had already discovered her bundle of notes and her rope
• 34:54
  of pearls. There are no more tales of Stingery. Tongue never answered to
• 35:00
  the name the game, nor was face ever recognized as his. He may
• 35:06
  have died that night, it is not very likely, sayce the young married
• 35:08
  man of the well appointed bungalow, which had been broken into earlier in the
• 35:12
  day, was a suit of clothes indeed, but not his evening clothes,
• 35:15
  which were found hung up neatly where he had left them. And it is
• 35:19
  regrettable to add that his opera glasses were not the only article of a marketable
• 35:23
  character which could never be found on his return. There is none the less
• 35:28
  reason to believe that this was the last professional incident in one of the most
• 35:31
  incredible criminal careers of which there is any record in Australia. Whether he be
• 35:37
  dead or alive back in the old country or still in the New or what
• 35:42
  is less likely, in prison under some other name, a gratifying fact remains
• 35:46
  that neither in Australia nor elsewhere has there been a second series of crimes bearing
• 35:52
  the stamp of Stingaree end of Chapter ten. End of Stingrey by E.
• 35:58
  W. Horning.