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The Black Hole of Glenranald · Stingaree

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Chapter two of Stingaree by E. W. Horning. This LibriVox recording is
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in the public domain. Read by Beeswax Candle the Black Hole of Glenn Runald.
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It was coming up about Ambidgee that Fergus Carrick first heard the name of
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Stingaree, with the cautious enterprise of his race. The young gentleman had booked
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steer it on a river steamer whose solitary passenger he proved to be. Accordingly,
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he was not only permitted to sleep on the saloon settee at nights,
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but graciously bidden to the captain's board by day. It was there that Fergus
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Carrick encouraged tales of the bush Rangers, as the one cleanly topic familiar in
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the mouth of the elderly engineer who completed the party. And it seemed that
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the knighthood of the up country road had been in extinct order from the extirpation
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of the Kellys to the appearance of this same Stingaree. It was reported a
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man of birth and mystery, with an ostentatious passion for music, and as
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romantic a method as that of any highwaymen of the old world, from which
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he hailed the calor. Fergus had been spared the romantic temperament, and was
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less impressed than entertained with what he heard on his arrival at glen Ranold.
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However, he found that substantial township shaking with laughter over the outlaw's latest and
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least discreditable exploit at the back block hamlet of Yallarook. Then it was that
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young Carrick first conceived an ambition to open his colonial career with the capture of
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Stingaree, For he was a serious immigrant who had come out in his teens
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to stay out if necessary for the term of his natural life. The idea
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had birth under one of the many pine trees which shaded the skeleton streets of
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budding Glen Ranold. On this tree was now a placard offering high reward for
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the bush rangers, person alive or dead. Fergus was making an immediate note
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in his pocket book when a hand fell on his shoulder. Would you like
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the half of Yon? Inquired a voice in his own tongue, and there
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at his elbow stood an elderly gentleman whose patriarchal beard hid half the buttons of
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his old packet. Coat, while a black skull cap sat somewhat jauntily on
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his head. What do you mean, asked Fergus bluntly. For the old
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gentleman stood, chuckling gently in his venerable beard to lay hold of him,
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replied the other with a helprissome, younger, enabler bodied man, and you're
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the very one I want. The raw youth stared ingenuously, But what can
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you know about me? I saw you land at the wharf, said the
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old gentleman, nodding his approval of the question, and says, I that's
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my man, as soon as ever I clapt eyes on ye. So I
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had a crack wi the captain or yon steamer. He told me you had
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no billet, but were just on the lookout for the best you could get,
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and that's all he'd been able to get out of Ye in a five
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days voyage. That was enough for me. I want a man who can
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keep his tongue behind his teeth, and I wanted you before I knew you
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were a brother Scott. Are you a squatter, sir? The young man
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asked, a little overwhelmed, No, sir, and branch manager of the
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Bank of New South Wales, the only bank with an under miles where we
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stand, and I cannot hear a better billet than any squatter in the colony.
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Indeed, I'm sure are very kind, sir, But he wanted to
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get on the station, protested Fergus with all his tact And as a matter
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of fact, i've introductions to one or two stations further back, though I
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saw no reason to tell our friend the skipper. So quite right, quite
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right, you like a man who can keep his tongue and its kennel,
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cried the bank manager, rubbing his hands. But wait, well, I
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tell you you'd need to work for your rations than any station I have ever
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told of, and I keep the accounts of enough to know. Now we
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me you'd get two pounds a week till your share of the reward was wiped
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off, and if we had no look for a year, you'd be no
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worse off. But could go and try your squatters, then that's a promise,
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and I'll keep it as sure as me. Name's Andrew mac Bean.
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But how do you proposed to catch this fellow, mister mac Bean? The
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bank manager looked on all sides likewise behind the tree, before replying under his
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breath by setting a wee trap for him. A bank's a bank, and
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Stingery hasn't has stuck one up since he took to his trade. But I
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tell you no more. Did he give me your answer? Yes, sir,
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No, I'm afraid I don't even write an off his hand. And
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as for figures, mister mac Bean laughed, artright, did I say it's
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going to take you into the bank? Man cried he there's three of us
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all ready to do the right and the cipher and and threes. Enough can
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you ride? I have ridden, and you'll do any rough job I set
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you too. The rougher the better, That's all I ask. There's a
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boggy and pair for yet to mind, and maybe drive though with horseback errants
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you'll do most of I'm an old widdower living along with aged housekeeper, the
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cashier and the clerk dig in the township, and I need to have a
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man of some sort about the place. Not I have one, but I
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get rid of him if f you'll come instead, understand you'll live in the
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house we meet, just like the jack rolls and the stations, and like
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the jacker rouse, you'll do all the odd jobs and dirty work. That
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no one else will look at, but unlike them, you'll get two pounds
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a week from the first for doing it. Mister Andrew mc bean had chanced
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upon a magic word. It was the position of Jack Arrow or utility parlor
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man, on one or other of the stations to which he carried introductions that
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his young countryman had set before him as his goal. True, a bank
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in a bush township was not a station in the bush itself. On the
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other hand, his would be friend was not the first to warn Fergus against
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the futility of expecting more than a nominal salary as a babe in suckling in
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colonial experience, and perhaps the prime elements of that experience might be gained as
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well in the purlieus of a sufficiently remote township, as in realms unnamed on
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any map. It will be seen that the sober stripling was reduced to arguing
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with himself that his main argument was not to be admitted in his own heart.
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The mysterious eccentricity of his employer, coupled with the adventurous character of his
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alleged prospects, was what induced the lad to embrace both in defiance of an
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unimaginative hard headedness, which he aimed for rather than possessed with a characteristic prudence.
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He had left his baggage on board the river steamer, and his own
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hands carried a piecemeal to the bank. This was a red brick bungalow with
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an ample verandah, standing back from the future street that was as yet little
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better than a country road. The verandah commanded a long perspective of pines,
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but no further bricks and mortar, and but very few weather board walls.
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The yard behind the house was shut in by as many outer buildings as clustered
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about the small homesteads which Fergus had already beheld the banks of the muham Bidgey.
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The man in charge of the yard was palpably in liquor, a chronic
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condition from his general appearance, and mister Macbean discharged him on the spot with
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a decision which left no loophole for appeal. The woman in charge of the
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house adorned another plaine of civilization. She was very deaf and very outspoken on
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her introduction to the young gentleman, whose face she was pleased to approve,
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with the implied reservation that all faces were liars, But she served up the
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mutton of the country, hot and tender, and Fergus Carrot, leaning back
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after an excellent repast, marveled for the twentieth time that he was not to
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pay for it. Indeed told Marie, ye said mister mac Bean, mixing
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a third glass of whiskey with a scal cap on the back of his head.
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And so I was it your age? But you're my very man.
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There are sum it says talking. Wait until the old lady turns in,
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and then you shall see what you shall see. Fergus waited in increasing excitement.
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The day's events were worthy of a dream, to have set forton Glen
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Ranold without knowing a soul in the place, and to find one's self comfortably
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housed at a good salary before night. There were moments when he questioned the
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complete sanity of his eccentric benefactor, who drank whiskey like water, both as
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to quantity and effect, and who chuckled continuously in his huge gray beard with
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Such doubts only added to the excitement of the evening, which reached a climax
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when a lighted candle was thrust in at the door and the pair advised not
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to make a night of it by the candid crone on her way to bed.
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We'll give her twenty minutes, said the manager, winking across his glass.
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They've never let her hear me, and she mustn't hear you either.
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She must know nothing at all about it. Nobody must, except you're in
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me. The mystification of Fergus was now complete. Unimagine it I as he
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was by practice and profession. He had an explanation a minute until the time
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was up. When the truth beat them all for wild improbability, mac Bean
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had risen, lifting the lamp, holding it on high, he led the
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way through Bay's doors into the banking premises. Here was another door, which
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Macbean not only unlocked, but locked again behind them both a small inner office
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led them to a shuttered chamber of fair size with a broad polished counter,
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glass swing doors, and a formidable portal beyond. And one of young Carrock's
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theories received apparent confirmation on the spot, for the manager slipped behind his counter
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by another door, and at once whipped out a great revolver. This they
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provided. Smith said he so forage as our only authorized defense, and are
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hangs on a hook down here behind the counter, at your march in here
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prepared your pistol, cockp and your back a which a visage likely to shoot
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first, the bush ranger, said Fergus, still more startled than reassured the
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bushranger. Of course, stringerree there as shay. And as for me,
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either my arms go up or down, I go in a heap. But
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suppose my arms do go up, supposing I still touched something with one foot,
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and supposing the flora just opens has swallowed as a sanguinary's stingery. Eh,
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hey, what then it would be great, cried Fergus. Who could
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it be done? It can be, it will be. It is being
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done, replied the manager, replacing the bank revolver and sliding over the counter
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like a boy. A square replane linoleum covered the floor, overlapped by a
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border of the same material bearing a design. Down went mc bean on his
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knees, and his beard swept this border as began pulling it up, tax
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and all the lamp burned brightly on the counter, its rays reflected in the
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burnished mahogany. All at once. Fergus seized it on his own initiative,
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and set it on the floor before his kneeling elder going down on his knees
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on the other side, and where the plain linolium ended, but where the
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overlapping border covered the floor, the planks were soorn through and through down one
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side of the central and self colored square a trap door, exclaimed Fergus in
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a whisper Macbean leant back on his slippered heels, his skull cap wickedly awry.
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This border takes a lot lifting, said he. Yet we've just got
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to lift it every time and tack it down again before a morning. Me
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try your hand over yonder on the far side. Fergus complied with so much
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energy that the whole boarder was ripped up in a minute, and he was
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not mistaken a trap door. It was of huge dimensions, almost exactly covered
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by the self colored square, but at each side a tongue of linoleum had
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been left loose for lifting it, and the lamp had scarcely been replaced upon
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the counter. When the bulk of the floor leaned upright in one piece against
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the opposite wall, it had uncovered a pit of corresponding size, but as
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yet hardly deep enough to afford a hiding place for the bucket, spade and
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pickaxe, which lay there on a length of sacking. I see, exclaimed
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Karric, as the full light flooded his brain. Is that a fact,
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inquired the manager, twinkling. You're going to make a deep hole of it?
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No, I am going to pay you to make it deep for me,
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And then a dead or knight we will take out to sleep by day
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when Stingery comes, if he waits to were ready for him, you'll touch
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some lever and the floor swallows him. As I said, if he waits
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to were ready for him, everything depends on that, and on your sailors.
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We must take tame. It isn't already the digging, though. We
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need to fix up some counterpois to make it shot after a body, like
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a mouse trap. We must do the thing thoroughly, if we do it
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at all, until it's done, not a word to a soul of the
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same hemisphere. In the end, I suppose I shall have to old Donkin,
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my cashier, and foul of the clerk. Donkin's their disbeliever, who'd
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to deserve the name of Didymus more than any more of my acquaintance. Freder
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would take so kindly to the old idear, he blurted out. Within a
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week. He may find it out when all was in readiness, but it'll
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tell him even then. See, I trust a brother Scotch at sate.
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I'm much appreciated, said Fergus, humbly. I wouldn't have trusted even you,
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you know, hadn't offerend a delivinery work for old shoulders, pursued mac
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Bean, broadening his speech with intentional humor. No will you do it?
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Will you know? The young man's answer was to strip off his coat and
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spring into the hole and set to work with such energy, yet so quietly,
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that the bucket was filled in a few almost so island seconds. Macbean
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carried it off, unlocking doors for the knots, while Fergus remained at the
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hole to mop his forehead. We need to have another bucket, said the
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manager on his return, if thought of every other thing. There is a
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disused well in the yard, and down goes every blessed bucket to and fro
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over the lip of the closing well. Back into the throat of the deepening
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hole went the buckets. For many a night and by day. Fergus Carrick
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employed his best wits to make an intrinsically anomalous position appear natural to the world,
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twas a position which he himself could thoroughly enjoy. It was largely his
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own master. He had daily opportunity for picking up the ways and customs of
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the bush, and a knightly excitement which did not pall as the secret task
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approached conclusion. But he was subjected to much chaff and questioning from the other
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young bloods of Glenn Reynold. He felt from the first that it was what
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he must expect. He was a groom with a place at his master's table.
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He was a jackaroo who introduced station life into a town, and the
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element of underlying mystery really existing as it did, was detected soon enough by
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other young heads, led by that of Fowler, the keen bank clerk,
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or he is looking at you both together, and you do favor the old
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man in no wearer, he would say, or else what is it?
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You could hang the boss for Ferguie old Toucher, These delicate but cryptic salies
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being ignored or parried. The heavy swamp of innuendo was invariably deserted for the
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breezy hill top of plain speech, and Fergus had often work enough to put
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a guard upon hand and tongue, but his temperament was eminently self contained,
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and on the whole he was an elusive target for the witticisms of his friends.
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There was no wit, however, and no attempt at it on the
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part of Donkin, the cantankerous cashier. He seldom addressed a word to Carrick,
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never a civil word, but more than once he treated his chief to
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a sarcastic remonstrance on his degrading familiarity with an underling. In such encounters,
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the imperturbable gray Beard was well able to take care of himself, albeit he
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expressed to Fergus a regret that he had not exercised a little more ingenuity in
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the beginning. You should recome to me with a letter of introduction, said
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he, But who would have given me one? I would yon first night,
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and you would have presented it next day in officers, replied the manager.
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But it's too late to think of it now. In a few days,
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doncan may know the truth. He might have known it already, but
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for one difficulty. They had digged their pit toward the generous depth of eight
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feet, so that a tall prisoner could barely touch the trap door with extended
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fingers and Stingaree, whose latest performance was no longer the yellow Rock Affair,
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was of medium height. According to his police description, the trap door was
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a double one which part uttered in the center with the deadly precision of the
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gallows floor. The difficulty was to make the flaps close automatically with the mouse
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trap effect of Macbean's ambition. Does manage to ventually by boring separate wells for
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a weight behind the hinges on either side. Copper wire running on minute pulleys
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let into grooves, suspended these weights and connected them with the flaps, and
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powerful door springs supplemented the more elaborate contrivance. The lever controlling the whole was
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concealed under the counter and reached by thrusting a foot through a panel which also
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opened inward on a spring. May be conceived that all this represented the midnight
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labours in the constant thought of many weeks. It was now the beginning of
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the cool but brilliant Riverina winter, and despite the disparity in their years,
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the two scotsmen were fast friends. They had worked together as one man with
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the same patient passion for perfection, the same delight and detail for its own
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sake. Almost the only difference was that the old man refreshed his energies with
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the glass of whiskey twas never far from his elbow after banking hours, while
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the young one cultivated the local excess of continual tea. And all this time
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the rascally Stingreye ranged the district with or without his taciturn accomplice, covering great
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distances in fabulous time, lurking none new where, and springing on the unwary
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in the last places in which his presence was suspected. But he has not
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yet robbed a bank, and we have our hopes, wrote Fergus to a
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faithful sister at Larg's. It may be for fear of the revolvers which all
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the banks have pervaded. Now mister Macbean has been practicing with ours, and
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purposely put a bullet through one of our back windows. The old township has
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been chaffing him about it. The local rag has ridden to a sarcastic paragraph,
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which is exactly what we wanted. The trap door over the pit is
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now practically finished. It is too complicated to describe, but stingarey has only
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to march to the bank and stick it up, and the man behind the
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counter is only to touch a lever with his foot for the villain to disappear
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through the floor into a prison to would take him all his time to break.
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On Saturday, the cashier and the clerk are coming to dinner, and
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before we sit down there to be sure in everything, this was but a
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fraction of one of the long letters which Fergus dispatched by nearly every mail.
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Silent and self contained as he was, he had one confidante on the opposite
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end of the earth, one escape pipe in his pen. Not a word
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of the great secret had he ever written to another soul, To his trusted
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sister, he had never before been quite so communicated. His conscience pricked him
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as he took his letter to the post, and he had it registered.
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On no other score. On Saturday, the bank closed at one o'clock.
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The staff were to return and dine at seven, the Queen's birthday falling on
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the same day for a sufficient pretext. As the hour approached, Fergus made
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the distressing discovery that his friend and host had anticipated the festivities with too free
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a hand mac Bean was not drunk, but he was perceptibly blunted and blurred.
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And Fergus had never seen the pale eyes so watery, while the black
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skull cap so much on one side of the venerable head. The lad was
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genuinely grieved. A whiskey bottle stood empty on the laden board, and he
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had the temerity to pocket the corkscrew while mac Bean was gone to a store
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room for another bottle. Solemn search ensued, and then Fergus was dispatched in
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haste for a new corkscrew. And look slippy, said mac Bean. Or
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we'll have old Donkey here before ye get back. Not for another three quarters
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of an hour, remarked Fergus, looking at his watch. Any minute,
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retorted mac Bean with a ryebald epithet. I invited Duncan in confidence to come
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a good half hour hourly. Now tell you why Duncan miss ken but Anon
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so sure, yon other impotent young squiry, his tongs too long for his
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mouth, donquin Or I could always be behind the counter anyway. I mean
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to take his opinion before telling any other body. Entertaining his own distrust the
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vivacious fowler, Fergus commanded the decision, and so took his departure by the
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private entrance. It was near sundown a fresh breeze blew along the hard road,
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puffing cloudlets of yellow sand into the rosy dusk. Fergus hurried till he
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was out of sight, then idled shamelessly under trees. He was not going
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on for a new corkscrewy. He was going back to confess boldly where he
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had found the old one. And the sight of Donkan and the distance sent
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him back in something of a hurry. Was quite enough to have to spend
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an evening with the cantankerous cashier. The bank was practically at one end of
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the township, as then laid out two or three buildings that were further on.
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They stood together aloof the bank. For a bank was sufficiently isolated,
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and Fergus could not but congratulate himself in the completion of its ingenious and unsuspected
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defenses. It only remained to keep the inventors reasonably sober for the evening,
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and thereafter to whistle or to pray for Stingaree. Meanwhile, the present was
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no mean occasion, and Fergus was glad to see the mac bean had thrown
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open the official doors in his absence. They had often agreed that it would
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be worth all their labor to enlighten Duncan by letting the pit gape under his
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nose. As he entered the bank, Fergus glanced over his shoulder, saw
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the other hurrying, and hurried himself in order to take up a good position
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for seeing the cashier's face. He was in the middle of the treacherous floor
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before he perceived that it was not Macbean in the half light behind the counter,
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but a good looking man whom he had never seen before. Didn't know
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I was invited, eh, said the stranger, putting up a single eye
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glass. Don't believe it. Perhaps you'd better ask mister mac Bean. Before
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it had occurred to him to stir from where he stood agape, the floor
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fell from beneath the feet to Fergus. His body lurched forward and came down
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flat and heavy on the hard earth eight feet below, not entirely stunned,
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though shaken and hurt from head to heel, He was still collecting his senses
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when the pit blackened as the trap door shut in implicit obedience to its weights
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and springs, and in the clinging velvet darkness. The young man heard a
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groan. Is that you said, Fergy? And are you there, mister
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Macbean? Maun didn't it shut? Just fain curiously. Blended with the physical
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pain in the manager's voice was a sodden, philosophic humor which maddened the younger
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man. Fergus swore where he lay, writhing on his stomach. Mac Bean
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chuckled and groaned again. It's stingery, he said, drawing a breath through
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his teeth. Of course it is. I never braisee it to us,
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so no more did I. Fergus spoke with ready confidence, and yet the
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words left something on his mind. It was something vague but haunting, something
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that made him feel instinctively unworthy of the kindly, uncomplaining tone which had annoyed
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him. But a moment before, no bones broken, ferrigly, none that
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they know of. They doubt I've not been so lucky. And thinking it's
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a rib by the way it hurts to breathe, Fergus was already fumbling in
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his pocket. The match box opened with a click. The match scraped several
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times in vain, then at last the scene sprang out as on the screen
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of a magic lantern, and to Fergus was a very white old man hunched
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up against the muddy wall, with blood upon his naked scalp and beard,
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and both hands pressed to his side. To the old man, a muddy
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face stricken with horrified concern, and a match burning down between muddy fingers,
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But to both such a new view and version of their precious hull that the
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corners of each mouth were twitching. As the match was thrown away, Fergus
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was fumbling for another when a step rang overhead, and at the sharp exchange
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of words which both underground expected, Fergus came on all falls to the old
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man's side, and together they sat gazing up into the pall of impenetrable crepe.
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You infernal villain, heard Donkin roar and stamper's feet with such effect that
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the floor opened, and down through the square of light came the cashier feet
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first here the then hell. He squeezed, but subsided, unhurt on hands
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and knees, as the flat went up with such a snap that Macbean and
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Carrick nudged each other at the same moment. Now I know who you are,
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the cashier raved gold yourselves, stingaree. Your fowl had rinsed up.
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And this is one of Macbean's putrid practical jokes. I saw as jackal hurrying
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in to say I was coming by cripes. Takes a surgical operation to see
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their sort. I grant you. There was a noise of subdued laughter overhead,
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even in the pit. A dry chuckle came through McBean's set teeth.
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If it's a practical joke of Maine, doncan th record on my own,
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poor pete, said the old man and the rib stoven tool. If that's
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any consolation to you, it's stingaree the money. You're right, you'd easy,
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he must be, cried the cashier, finding his words in a torrent.
26:40
I was going to tell you it's been at his game down south,
26:42
stuck up our own mail again, only yesterday between this and the den or
26:47
quim got a fine haul of registered letters. So they say, but where
26:51
the juice are we? Or I never knew there was a cellar under here,
26:55
little at a trap door that might have been made for these villains.
26:59
You was made for, madam, replied Macbean, after a pause, and
27:03
in the dead dark he went on to relate the frank and humble history of
27:06
the whole, from its inception to the crooked climax of that bitter hour.
27:11
A braver confession. Fergus had never heard its philosophic flow, was unruffled by
27:17
the more and more scornful interjections of the ungenerous cashier. And yet his younger
27:22
countryman, who might have been proud of him, hardly listened to a word
27:26
uttered by Macbean. Half a dozen fallen from the lips of Donkin had lightened
27:33
young Carrock's darkness with consuming fires of shame, a fine haul of registered letters,
27:41
among others, his own last letter to his sister. So it was
27:45
he who had done at all, and he had purjured himself to his benefactor
27:49
besides betraying him. He sat in the dark between fire and ice, chiefly
27:56
wondering how he could soonest win through the trap door and earn a bullet in
27:59
his brain. A spray to night, concluded mac Bean, whose fall completely
28:04
asserted him, was for the express purpose of expounding the trap to ye,
28:08
and I asked ye airily to take your advice. He was not so sure
28:11
about young Ferler, whether we need tell him or no. He's an awful
28:15
long tongue. But I'm thinking there's a longer if I knew where to look
28:19
for it. Oh, I can tell you where, rasped Duncan to go
28:23
on? Why was what you owed? Hannah put into finishing touches to the
28:27
table and waiting for Fergus's character come back? When I thought I had him
28:32
behind me and k you with him. But it was stingery in his meat,
28:36
and the two of us were covered with revolvers like young riffles. Hannah,
28:41
they told to go on with what she was doing, as they were
28:44
mighty hungry, and they advised her to do as she was bid. The
28:47
brute with the beard his charge of her stingery himself drove me into the middle
28:51
of my own trap door, made me give up my keys, and then
28:53
went behind the counter and did the trick. He'd got it all down on
28:57
paper. The Lord Longe knows, how are you, scotchman, cried the
29:03
pleasant cashier to hear land O cakes, you take every cake in the land
29:08
between you. It seemed to have been filling his pipe while he listened and
29:12
prepared this pretty speech. Now he struck a match, and with the flame
29:18
to the bowl saw Fergus for the first time. The cashier held the match
29:23
on high. Ye hear all the while he cried, nay wonder you lay
29:30
low Carrick, Nay wonder I didn't hear your voice. What do you mean
29:34
by that? Growled Fergus in fierce heat and fierce satisfaction. Surely, mister
29:40
mac bean, you aren't wondering who wagged the long tail? Now? You
29:44
mean that I wagged mane and it's a lay, said Fergus hoarsely, who
29:48
was sitting upon his heels poised to spring. Oh, I mean that if
29:52
mister mc bean had listened to me two months ago, we should none of
29:55
this be in this soul. Now, then, my faith, you're in
29:59
a worse one than think, cried Ferguson felled upon as traducer as the match
30:03
went out. Take that and that and that, he ground out through his
30:07
teeth as he sent the cashier over on his back and powdered the earth with
30:11
his skull. Luckily, the first was soft and the second hard, so
30:15
that the man was more outraged than hurt. When circumstances which they might have
30:19
followed, created a diversion in his turn, the lively Fowler had marched whistling
30:25
into the bank, has ceased whistling to swear down the barrel of a cocked
30:30
revolver, and met a quicker fate than his comrades by impressing the Bushrangers,
30:34
the most dangerous man of the quartet. Unfortunately for him, his fate was
30:40
further differentiated from theirs. Fowler's feet glanced off Carrock's back, and he plunged
30:45
into the well, head first, rolling over like a stone as the wooden
30:49
jaws closed greedily. Upon the light of day, Fergus at once struck matches,
30:56
and in their light the cashier took the insensible head upon his knees and
31:00
glared at his enemies, as if from sanctuary of the Red Cross. But
31:06
Fergus returned to mac Bean's side. He never said a word to a living
31:11
soul. He muttered, just come out some other way, of course,
31:14
it has said the old manager, with the same tell tale inhalation through the
31:18
teeth. Fergus felt worse than ever. He groped for the bald head and
31:22
found it cold and drank. In an instant he was clamoring under the trap
31:26
door, leaping up and striking it with his fist. What do you want
31:32
whiskey? Some of us are hurt. God help you. If it's any
31:36
hanky panky, it's none. Something to drink and something to drink it in,
31:41
or there's blood upon your head. Clanking steps departed and returned stand by
31:47
to catch below there and Fergus stood by, expecting to see a long barrel
31:52
with the bottle and glass that broke their fall on him. But Stingaree had
31:56
crept away unheard, and he pressed the lever just enough to let the glass
32:00
and bottle tumble through. Time passed, it might have been an hour.
32:06
The huddled heap that was Macbean breathed forth relief. The head on Donkan's knees
32:12
moved from side to side with groans. Doncan himself thanked Fergus for his ration.
32:17
He who served it out alone, was thirsty. Wait until lay earn
32:22
some, he said bitterly to himself. He could finish the lot of his
32:25
started now. But the others never dreamt that he was waiting, and he
32:30
lied about it to Macbean. Now that they sat in silence, no sound
32:34
escaped them. Overhead the herd, Stingerye and his mates set down to a
32:37
feast, which Macbean described with groaning modesty, as the best that he could
32:42
do. There's no soup, he whispered, But there's a barrel of oisters
32:46
fetched up on purpose by the coach helped the hevener missed the shabbley, the
32:51
majest road. Do the thing complete in a little. The champagne popped,
32:57
Dray Monopoly, moaned the manager of tears. He came up along with the
33:01
oysters, or sirs or sirs. But this is hard on us. All
33:07
another at the turkey, and I chopped the stuff, and with my and
33:10
to my hands. They were at the turkey a long time. Another cork
33:15
popped, but the familiar tread of deaf Hannah was heard no more, and
33:20
at length they called her. Mr Lore cried a mouth that was full.
33:25
Old lady, cried the gallant stingery. She's odd of ear ring, mate.
33:30
She might still hear you, howie. And the chairs rasped backward over
33:36
the bare boards as one the same instant. Fergus leaped to his feet in
33:39
the earthly tartarus his own hands had done. Oh do you believe she's done?
33:44
A boat? He gasped, and got clean away. Curses overhead confirmed
33:49
the supposition. Clanking feet hunted the premises at a run. In a minute.
33:53
The curses were renewed and multiplied, yet muffled, as though there were
33:58
some fresh cause for them, which the prisoners need not know. Hannah had
34:01
not been found, yet some disturbing discovery had undoubtedly been made. Doors were
34:07
banged and bolted. A gunshot came faint, but ster carter from the outer
34:13
world. A real report echoed through the bank besiege, cries Fergus striking a
34:20
match to dance by the old heroine has fetched the police, and these beauties
34:23
are in a trap. What about us? Demanded the cashier. Show up
34:30
and listen, retorted Fergus without ceremony. Mac Bean was leaning forward with bald
34:35
head on one side and hollowed palm at the upper ear. Even the stun
34:38
man had recovered sufficiently to raise himself on one elbow and gaze overhead as Fergus
34:43
struck match after match, the villains were having an altercation on the very trap
34:47
door. Now as the turner cut and run, no one never very well
34:52
you do, so I am going through the safe. You should have done
34:55
that first. Better late than not at all. You can't stop and do
35:00
it without me, know as I can. I'll call for a volunteer from
35:04
below. You show them your spurs and save your skin. No, I'll
35:08
stay, curse you. I'll stay, and I'll have my volunteer, whether
35:14
you stay or not. The pair had scarcely parted, and the trap door
35:20
opened slowly and stayed open for the first time. The banking chamber was but
35:23
dimly lit, and the light in the pit less than it had been during
35:28
the brief burning of single matches. No peering face was revealed to those below,
35:34
but the voice of Stingery came rich and crisp from behind the counter.
35:37
Your old woman has got away to the police barracks and the place is surrounded.
35:43
One of you has got to come up and help and help fair or
35:45
go to hell with a bullet in his heart. I give you one minute
35:49
to choose your man. In one second, the man had chosen himself another
35:54
word or a glance at any of his companions, But the face burning with
35:59
extraordinary fires, Fergus Carrick sprang for the clean edge of the trap door,
36:04
caught at first with one hand and then with both, drew himself up like
36:07
the gymnast he had been at a Scottish school, and found himself prone upon
36:12
the floor and trap door as the latter closed under him. On the release
36:15
of the lever, which Stingarey understood so well, a yell of execration followed
36:21
him into the upper air, and Stingarey was across the counter before his new
36:24
ally had picked himself up. That's because this was expected of me, said
36:31
Fergus grimly to explain the cashier's reiterated anathemis I amish the writer of the registered
36:37
letter that led to all this? So now I'm going the whole hog and
36:43
the blue eyes boiled in his brick red face. You mean that no nonsense?
36:49
You shall see I should shoot you like a native cat. You couldn't
36:53
do me a better turn right, swear on your knees that you won't use
36:58
it against me or my mate. Now trust you with this revolver may fire
37:01
as high as you please, but they must think where three instead of two?
37:07
Fergus took the oath in fierce earnest upon his knees, was handed the
37:10
weapon belonging to the bank and posted in his own bedroom window at the rear
37:15
of the building. The front was secure enough with the shutters and bolts of
37:17
the official fortress. It was to the back premises that the attack confined itself.
37:22
Making all use of the admirable cover afforded by the stables, Carrick saw
37:28
heads and shoulders hunched to aim over stable doors. As he obeyed his orders
37:32
and kept his oath, his high fire drew a deadlier upon himself. Stream
37:38
of lead from a winchester whistled into the room, passed his ear and over
37:42
his ducked head. He tried firing from the floor without showing his face.
37:46
The winchester let him alone. In a sudden sickness, he sprang up to
37:52
see if anything hung sprawling over the stable door, and was in time to
37:54
see men retreat to left and right, the white puggeries of the police fluttering
38:00
ingloriously. Among them. Only one was left upon the ground, and he
38:05
could sit up to nurse and knee. Fergus sighed relief as he sought Stingaree
38:10
and found him with a comical face before the open safe house full of poultry
38:15
paper said he, I suppose it's the old sportsman's custom to get rid of
38:20
most of his heavy metal before closing. On saturdays. Fergus said it was
38:24
he had himself stirred many a strong box aboard unsuspected barges for a chuoker.
38:30
Well, now it's our time to leave you, continued Stingaree. If I'm
38:34
not mistaken, their flight is simply for the moment, and two or three
38:37
more they'll be back to batter and the bank's shutters. I wonder what they
38:40
think they've done with our horses. I'll bet they've looked everywhere but in the
38:45
larder next to the kitchen door. Not the will ever let them get so
38:50
close. But my mates in there now, mounted and waiting, and I
38:52
shall have to leave you. The day was coming with you, cried Fergus
38:57
aghast, Stingarey's eye glass down its cord. I'm afraid I must trouble you
39:01
to step into that safe instead, said he, smiling. Man, I
39:07
mean it, You'll think I don't I fortun your usaide of my own free
39:10
will? How can I live that Downe? It's the only side for me
39:14
for the rest of tame. The fixed eye glass covered the brick bred face
39:19
with the molten eyes. I don't believe you mean it. You shall shoot
39:23
me if I don't. I most certainly should. My mate Howie has his
39:28
obvious limitations. I've long wanted a drop of new blood. Barmaids, thoroughbred
39:34
and strong as an elephant, were neither of us heavy weights by the powers.
39:38
I'll trust you, and you shall ride behind. Now. Barmaid was
39:43
the milk white mare that was only less notorious than her lawless rider. It
39:46
was noised and traveler's huts and around camp fires that she would do more at
39:51
her master's word than had been known of a horse outside a circus, just
39:54
the one touch that Stingery had borrowed from a more Napoleonic but incomp coarser and
40:00
cruel and night of the bush. In all other respects, the found de
40:05
siecle Desperado was unique. It was a stroke of luck, however, that
40:08
there happened to be an old white mare in the bank's stables, which the
40:13
police had impounded with solemn care, or turning every other animal adrift. And
40:17
so it fell out that not a shot followed the mounted bush rangers into the
40:22
night, and that long before the bank shutters were battered in the flying trio
40:27
were miles away. Fergus flew like a runaway bride his arms about the belted
40:32
waist of Stingaree. Trees loomed ahead and flew past by the clump under a
40:38
wonderful wide sky of scintillating stars. The broad bush track had very soon been
40:45
deserted at a tangent through ridges and billows of salt bush and cotton bush.
40:50
They sailed with the swift confidence of a well handled clipper before the wind.
40:54
Stingaree was the leader four miles out of five, but in the fifth his
40:59
mate, how he would gallop ahead and anon they would come on him dismounted
41:02
at a wire fence, with the wires struck down, and his horse tethered
41:06
to one of the posts till he had led bar made over twas Thus they
41:10
careered across the vast chess board of the fence back blocks. At dead of
41:14
night, Stingery and Fergus sat saddle and bare back without a break until near
41:19
dawn. Their pioneer spurred forward yet again and was swallowed in a steely haze
41:23
twas cold as a sharp spring night in England. But for a mile or
41:28
more Fergus had clung on with but one arm round the bush ranger's waist now
41:32
the right arm came stealing back, felt something cold for the fraction of a
41:37
second, and plucked prodigiously, and in another fraction an icy ring moules Stingery's
41:45
neck pull up, said Fergus hoarsely, Or your brains go flaying, little
41:52
traitor, whispered the other, with an imprecation that froze the blood. Aim
41:58
no traitor, as for I wouldn't abuse the revolver you gave me, and
42:01
it's been in my pocket, or the night the others unloaded. You wouldn't
42:06
sit so quiet if it were. Now round we go and back in our
42:08
tracks full split. It's getting light. We shall see them plain if you
42:13
vary a yard either way, or if your mate catches us. Now to
42:16
go your brains. The bush reindeer obeyed without a word. Fergus was almost
42:22
unnerved by the incredible ease of his conquest over so redoubtable a roughian, his
42:27
stoll of Scottish blood stood by him, but he still made grim apology as
42:31
they rode. I had to do it. It was through me. You
42:35
got to know. I had to lift that down. This was the only
42:37
way you have spirit. It would still be my mate, You're a mate,
42:43
I mean this to be the making of me as an honest man.
42:45
Here's the fence. We'll give you two minutes to strap it down and get
42:49
us over. Stingery slid tamely to the ground. Don't you dare to get
42:54
through those ways? Strap it from the side with your belt, and strap
42:58
it quick. And the bush ranger obeyed with the same sensible docility, but
43:02
with his back turned so that Fergus could not see his face. And it
43:07
was light enough to see faces now. Yet bar maid refused the visible wires
43:13
that she had not refused them all that night of Indigo's starlight. CorX Arman
43:19
cried Fergus in the saddle now and urging the mare with his heels, so
43:22
Stingery whispered in the mare's ear, and with that the strapped wires flew under
43:27
his captor's nose as the rider took the fence, but not the horse.
43:31
At a single syllable, the milkwhite mare had gone on her knees like a
43:35
devout lady in holy fane, And as she rose, her last rider lay
43:39
senseless at her master's feet. But whether from his fall or from a blow
43:44
dealt him in the act of falling. The unhappy Fergus never knew indeed knowledge
43:50
for him was at an end till matches burned under his nose awakened him to
43:53
a position to the last humiliation. His throat and chin topped a fence post.
44:00
The weight of his body was on chin and throat, while wrists and
44:04
muscles were lashed at full strength to the wires on either side. Now I
44:09
am going to shoot you like a dog, said Stingaree. He drew the
44:14
revolver, whose muzzle had pressed into his own neck so short a time before.
44:17
Yet now it was broad daylight, the sun coming up in the bound
44:22
youth's eyes for the last time. Shoot Away, he crote, raising the
44:28
top of his head to speak. At all, I gave you leave before
44:30
we started. Shoot away at ten paces, said Stingaree, stepping them.
44:37
That I think is fair, perfectly, replied Fergus. But be kind enough
44:43
to make this silk called man of yours hold his fair tongue till a matavey
44:45
has shot of you all huge how he had muttered little enough for him,
44:50
But to that little Stingery put an instantaneous stop. Here's a dog to be
44:55
shot like a dog. But too good a dog for you to blagg it,
45:00
cried he any message, young fellow, nor through you so long?
45:05
Then shoot away. The long barrel was poised as steadily as field gun on
45:12
its carriage. Fergus kept his blue eyes on the gleaming ring of the muzzle.
45:16
The hammer fell, the cartridge cracked, and from the lifted muzzle a
45:22
tiny cloud flowed like a bubble from a pipe. The post quivered under Karek's
45:28
chin, and a splinter flew up and down before his eyes. But that
45:32
was all aim longer, said he get it over this shot. I'll try,
45:38
But the same thing happened again. Come nearer, sneered Fergus, and
45:45
stingery strode forward with an oath. I was going to give you six of
45:51
them, but you were a braver man than I thought, and that's the
45:54
lot. The bad youth's livid face turned redder than the red dawn. Shoot
46:00
me, shoot, he shouted like a lunatic. No I shall not.
46:07
I never meant to. I did mean you to sit out six. But
46:10
you're the most gallant little idiot I've ever struck besides come from the old country
46:15
like myself. And a sigh floated into the keen morning air as he looked
46:22
as last upon the lad through the celebrated monocle. Then nor shoot myself when
46:28
I'm free, sobbed Fergus through his teeth. Oh no, you won't,
46:34
Misstingery's last words. You'll find it's not a bit worth while. And when
46:38
the Mounted police and others from Glen Ryanold discovered the trusted youngster not an hour
46:44
later, they took the same tone and one and all stopped and stooped to
46:49
peer at the two bullet holes in the post and at something underneath them,
46:52
before cutting poor Fergus down when they propped him up to read with his own
46:57
eyes the nailed legend which first helped Fergus Carrick to live down the indiscretion of
47:01
his letter to Largs, and then did more for him in that colony than
47:06
letter from Queen Victoria to his Excellency of New South Wales. For it ran,
47:12
this is the gamest little cock I have ever struck, yet me captive.
47:15
Once could have shot me over and over again, and all but took
47:19
me alive. More power to him. Stingaree end of Chapter two