Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood (epub read online books TXT) π
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Robbery Under Arms, subtitled A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia, was published in serial form in the Sydney Mail newspaper between July 1882 and August 1883. It was published under the name of Rolf Boldrewood, a pseudonym for Thomas Alexander Browne, a police magistrate and gold commissioner.
Robbery Under Arms is an entertaining adventure story told from the first person point of view of Richard βDickβ Marston. The story is in the form of a journal written from jail where heβs waiting to be hanged for his crimes. Marston and his brother Jim are led astray as young men by their father, who made money by cattle βduffing,β or stealing. They are introduced to their fatherβs associate, known only as Captain Starlight, a clever and charming fraudster. After a spell in jail, from which he escapes, Marston, his brother, and father are persuaded by Starlight to operate as bank robbers and bushrangers. They embark on a life continually on the run from the police. Despite this, Dick and Jim also manage to spend a considerable time prospecting for gold, and the gold rush and the fictitious gold town of Turon are described in detail.
The character of Captain Starlight is based largely on the real-life exploits of bushrangers Harry Redford and Thomas Smith, the latter known as βCaptain Midnight.β
Regarded as a classic of Australian literature, Robbery Under Arms has never been out of print, and has been the basis of several adaptations in the form of films and television serials.
This Standard Ebooks edition is unabridged, and restores some 30,000 words from the original serialization which were cut out of the 1889 one-volume edition of the novel.
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- Author: Rolf Boldrewood
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The great dart is to keep the young stock away from their mothers until they forget one another, and then most of the danger is past. But if calves with one manβs brand on are seen sucking another manβs cows, it is pretty plain that the brand on the calves has been put on without the consent of the owner of the cowsβ βwhich is cattle-stealing; a felony, according to the Act 7 and 8 George IV, No. 29, punishable with three yearsβ imprisonment, with hard labour on the roads of the colony or other place, as the Judge may direct.
Thereβs a lot of law! How did I learn it? I had plenty of time in Berrima Gaolβ βworse luckβ βmy first stretch. But it was after Iβd done the foolishness, and not before.
VβNow then, you boys!β says father, coming up all of a sudden like, and bringing out his words as if it was old times with us, when we didnβt know whether heβd hit first and talk afterwards, or the other way on, βget out the lot weβve just branded, and drive βem straight for that peak, where the water shines dripping over the stones, right again the sun, and look slippy; weβre burning daylight, and these cows are making row enough, blast βem! to be heard all the way to Banda. Iβll go on and steady the lead; you keep βem close up to me.β
Father mounted the old mare. The dog stopped behind; he knew heβd have to mind the tailβ βthat is the hindmost cattleβ βand stop βem from breaking or running clear away from the others. We threw down the rails. Away the cattle rushed out, all in a long string. Youβd βa thought no mortal men could βa kept βem in that blind hole of a place. But father headed βem, and turned βem towards the peak. The dog worried those that wanted to stay by the yard or turn another way. We dropped our whip on βem, and kept βem going. In five minutes they were all a-moving along in one mob at a pretty sharpish trot like a lot of store cattle. Father knew his way about, whether the country was thick or open. It was all as one to him. What a slashing stockman he would have made in new country, if he only could have kept straight.
It took us an hourβs hard dinkum to get near the peak. Sometimes it was awful rocky, as well as scrubby, and the poor devils of cattle got as sore-footed as babiesβ βblood up to the knee, some of βem; but we crowded βem on; there was no help for it.
At last we rounded up on a flat, rocky, open kind of a place; and here father held up his hand.
βLet βem ring a bit; some of their tongues are out. These young things is generally soft. Come here, Dick.β I rode up, and he told me to follow him.
We walked our horses up to the edge of the mountain and looked over. It was like the end of the world. Far down there was a dark, dreadful drop into a sort of deep valley below. You couldnβt see the bottom of it. The trees on the mountain side looked like bushes, and they were big ironbarks and messmates too. On three sides of us was this awful, desolate-looking precipiceβ βa dreary, gloomy, Godforsaken kind of spot. The sky got cloudy, and the breeze turned cold and began to murmur and whistle in an odd, unnatural kind of way, while father, seeing how scared and puzzled I was, began to laugh. I shuddered. A thought crossed my mind that it might be the Enemy of Souls, in his shape, going to carry us off for doing such a piece of wickedness.
βLooks queer, doesnβt it?β says father, going to the brink and kicking down a boulder, that rolled and crashed down the steep mountain side, tearing its way through scrub and heath till it settled down in the glen below. βIt wonβt do for a manβs horse to slip, will it, boy? And yet thereβs a track here into a fine large paddock, open and clear, too, where Iβm going to put these cattle into.β
I stared at him, without speaking, thinking was he mad.
βNo! the old man isnβt mad, youngster,β he said; βnot yet, at least. Iβm going to show you a trick that none of you native boys are up to, smart as you think yourselves.β Here he got off the old mare, and began to lead her to the edge of the mountain.
βNow, you rally the cattle well after me,β he said; βtheyβll follow the old mare after a bit. I left a few cows among βem on purpose, and when they draw keep βem going well up, but not too fast.β
He had lengthened the bridle of the mare, and tied the end of a light tether rope that he had round her neck to it. I saw her follow him slowly, and turn down a rocky track that seemed to lead straight over a bluff of the precipice.
However, I gave the word to βhead on.β The dog had started rounding βem up as soon as he saw the old mare walk towards the mountain side, and the cattle were soon crushed up pretty close to the mareβs heels.
Mind this, that they were so footsore and tender about the hoofs that they could not have run away from us on foot if they had tried.
After βringingβ a bit, one of the quiet cows followed up the old mare that was walking step by step forward, and all the rest followed her like sheep. Cattle will do that. Iβve seen a stockrider, when all the horses were dead beat, trying to get fat cattle to take a river in flood, jump off and turn his horse loose into the stream. If he went straight, and swam across, all
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