Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood (epub read online books TXT) 📕

could show? They had probably been anticipated, but was it unlikely that some particularly sensational act of spoliation would not take place if this puerile policy of temptation was adhered to? Would it not strike the man of culture that a parallel was afforded to the situation in which Lord Clive found himself, with the treasure-house of the Nabob of Arcot at his disposal, concerning which he subsequently exclaimed, “Good God, Mr. Speaker, when I think over it, I am astonished at my own moderation.”

And does any well-wisher of this fair land desire this state of things to continue? We put this question in all sorrow and sincerity to the Ministry, and⁠—pause for a reply!

“Well done, Haverton; very neatly put, Watty, old man. I call that very straight from the shoulder,” said Starlight. (We knew the reporter for the Imperial on the Turon and many a supper of oysters and stout had we polished off together.) “Can’t you see him knocking off this for the night mail, sitting in that little hole of an office of his, with his shirtsleeves rolled up and a pot of beer beside him? Well, it’s all true enough, God knows; and it’s a pity too. However, we can do nothing to help that now. The end must come some day. What does the other chap say⁠—the Turon Star?” This was him:

We are aweary, aweary of writing upon this melancholy yet distracting theme. We can but reiterate our conviction that the Government are taking all human means for the discovery of the actors in this most gruesome tragedy⁠—that the police are straining every nerve in their endeavour to fathom the mystery of the disappearance of the outlaws. It is satisfactory to have to announce the recovery of a large proportion of the stolen gold, which was discovered, after a close pursuit, upon the packhorses which the outlaws had been forced to abandon at the foot of the Weddin Mountains, to the fastnesses of which they were doubtless making their way.

“So they were done after all. Dashed if I’m not glad of it,” says dad. “I told them the horses was nothing nigh up to the weight, nor in condition neither; and they was cussed cheeky over it too. Sarve ’em right; they’ll know better another time.”

“So I say, governor,” says Starlight; “well, what comes next?”

We are gratified to hear that the Government have offered a reward of one thousand pounds each for the capture of any of the band, and have, besides, caused sentence of outlawry to be legally pronounced against them.

“What’s that last fakement?” says father, rather earnest-like. “Thousand here or thousand there don’t matter much as I knows of. Them that ’ud let on for a thousand ’ud let on for a hundred. The price don’t make no sort of difference. But they think it does. But what’s a outlaw? We’re out o’ law, and justice too, far enough a’ready; ain’t we?”

“Well, we’re ‘bold outlaws,’ in one sense, as you very I sensibly remark, governor; but not in another. Men have to be declared outlaws and all that sort of thing by a Judge in the regular way. We had to be called up to appear and answer for our crimes.”

“And did they think we’d come?” said father.

“Probably not. But that leaves them at liberty to pronounce us legally outlaws. That being the case, any man may take us alive or dead, shoot us from behind a tree without notice. And the reward paid all the same for us, dead or alive. They’re not obliged to call upon us to surrender in the Queen’s name. We’re henceforth like hunted wolves or mad dogs to our fellow-men. Everyone may join in the hue and cry that likes.”

“Well, so they could afore,” says father. “I don’t see nothin’ in it. If they take us they take us⁠—that’s all about it. It don’t bring ’em no nearer to us that I see. It’s the p’leece and us for it⁠—the old thing. Them and their outlawry be blowed!”

The old man, somehow, seemed to think more than he liked to say about the outlawry question. It worried him as something he wasn’t used to. Not that it made any difference, as he said at first, to men that knew their lives were forfeited whenever they could be surprised, overtaken, outfought, or betrayed. It was wonderful none of these things had happened to us yet. Our fortune might change any day, of course. But with luck and pluck, plenty of good horses, a thorough knowledge of the country and the goodwill on the quiet of plenty of people who didn’t want to see us run down, we might last a few years yet.

A thousand pounds a head was a good price certainly! We were worth as much as so many imported bulls (Starlight said) to any men that could round us up and run us in. We were becoming more valuable, too, every day, in a manner of speaking; and there was no saying how much we mightn’t be worth if we put in a few more years at our present profession. The worst of it was, none of the money would go into our own pockets; we were working for a reputation that was to benefit others, not ourselves. Starlight used to make us laugh sometimes in spite of ourselves, when he got into one of his mad humours, and went on talking like this.

While we were taking it easy, and except for the loneliness of it as safe as if we had been out of the country altogether, Moran and the other fellows hadn’t quite such a good time of it. They were hunted from pillar to post by the police, who were mad to do something to meet the chaff that was always being cast up to them of having a lot of bushrangers robbing and shooting all over the country and not being able to take them. There were some out-of-the-way places enough in