OLIVER SHUTTLEWORTH’S HOLIDAYS;

Western Star, Issue 261, 7 September 1878, Page 7

OLIVER SHUTTLEWORTH’S HOLIDAYS;

Or, Rambles in Tasmania in the Olden Time. —— (by an old eivertonian.) Chapter 11. The Felon’s story—Put ope the scent —Ev AND ALE. “There are quick ears about us,” said Edward, “ stimulated to unnatural sharpness by lust of gold, and the business on hand demands caution ; a word inadvertantly dropped on the subject may cause trouble to .others, aud have mischievous consequences to ourselves. I know you will be careful how you speak, more especially when I tell you that a human life is dependent upon your faithfulness.” “ O'est hicn ! cried Oliver.” There’s a second element brought in that deepens the interest; there’s not only mystery, but also a spice of danger in the business. Do, prithee, Ned unburden yourself speedily of it —of course you may trust me, I’m quivering with impatience to hear your story.” “ Well, some twelve years ago a young man was transported from England for complicity in some grossly fraudulent transaction. He had inherited from his ancestors an untarnished name, and was connected with some of the most ancient aud honorable families of his county, but during bis undergraduate course at Oxford he fell into irretrievably dissolute courses which resulted in crime and consequent transportation. In his arrival here in consideration of his antecedents and educational fitness for the post, he was appointed to office duty, aud, after a year or two of service, having been well reported of by the official head of his department, he was pi’omoted in reward of meretorious behaviour to some office of trust in the penal settlement. Some time after that his ticket of leave was granted to him, and he began to push his way into a place of public consideration, and the old taints of conviction that had withered aud blighted his past life was almost lost sight of in ffie activities which now daily engrossed his thoughts. Thus some years passed happily on ; but one luckless day while reporting himself in obedience to the law under which he lived, his auger blazed forth at some foul taunting words which were addressed to him by the officer in whose presence he stood, and with one well planted blow be made his adversary bite the dust. He knew the degrading penalty that was attached to an act like that and his whole soul shrank from submission to it, and he fled to the cover of the pathless b-.sh. There he wandered for many a weary day, content with such scant subsistence as a flayed ill-cooked opossum afforded him, and slaking his thirst at the springs that w; lied at his feet. That couldn’t last very long, aud the dismal end of it all was that in a reckless sort of despair he joined himself to a gang of bushrangers to whose account certain violent aud bloody acts have been laid. The government has taken vigorous measures against them, aud has set a price upon their heads being determined to execute rigorously the extreme sentence of the law on every one of them on whom it can lay its hands.” “ And what connection has that with the weird cry in the thicket ?” asked Oliver.

“ The unhappy man whoso story I’ve just now sketched is lying in cover there.”

Oliver wondered how his friend could have come into such closeness of intercourse with the outlaw as his familiarity with liis signals seemed to imply. But in a moment the puzzled expression had vanished from his face; and then in a bantering tone he asked, “ Well, but why is be putting bis neck within reach of the noose ? Does he want you to go into the merrie wood with him and lead the life of a jovial outlaw, having your sleep disturbed by sensations of asphyxia and by appalling visions of a hempen rope ?” “ No,” was the reply, “ he only wants me to bring a lady here to meet him.” Oliver whistled a long low whistle and then said, “ Aha! there’s a woman in the case, is there ? They say that that side of humanity is at the bottom of all mischief, and I would counsel you to give a wide berth to the whole business.”

“That’s scarcely possible,” said Ned, “in piesent circumstances, and later on, you may have an opportunity of seeing tlie thing very much as I do. Moreover this man’s case has strangely interested me, and I feel disposed to serve him. The girl whom he wishes to see, was engaged to him some months before his rash act made him outcast from the fellowship of all law-abiding men.” “Well, lead on to your perilous enterprise. He has a tender heart that will run his nick into such fearful risks to interview his lady-love.” And so after dark that night the two friends sallied out ostensibly lor a saunter

through the streets, and after making a slight detour to put suspicious spies off the scent they tapped at the door of a cottage standing embowered in foliage in the purlieu of the town. The door was opened by a maiden who with some trepidation of manner invited them to enter, and pointing them to seats, awaited with most winning modesty of carriage the communication which they had to make. Edward pub a slip of paper into her hand, and after reading it she lifted her eyes suffused with tears to his face and said, “ You know his hiding-place. He trusts you ; and says here you will be my guide. Is that so p”

“I will gladly do you that service,” replied Edward. “ Then to-morrow I ijshall be ready at any hour you appoint,” said the lady.

As her relations to the outlaw were well known, it was considered inadvisable that the three should proceed to the trysting place in company. It was therefore arranged that Edward and his friend should make au early start and that the lady should meet them about uoon at a point carefully indicated beyond the first cascade.

At the appointed hour they met, and having concerted a danger signal, Oliver kept watch on the hill-tep while the others descended to the thicket below, and having guided his companion to the outlaw’s side, Edward withdrew from the scene which was of too tender and holy a kind to be witnessed by any stranger’s eye. While watching the angry demonstrations of a wombat which he had unearthed from its hole there were borne distinctly towards him a sound like the croaking of a freg. He started, and glancing rapidly to the top ofthe hill where Oliver occupied a crouching position as if seeking to avoid observation from the other side, he darted into the thicket and cried, “ Elee! There seems to be danger at hand: there’s not a moment to be lost:” and in the pause that followed there fell again upon the ear the ominous croaking of the watcher on the hill. “ That’s the signal of danger agreed upon : Away ! as you value your life.” The outlaw’s keen eye for a moment searched the speaker’s face as if he would penetrate to his most secret soul, but reading there only truth and a brave fidelity he gratefully grasped his extended hand and, clasping his fiancee to his heart with a fervent embrace, he bounded into the depths of the forest like a hare with the bay of the hounds in its ears, and was speedily lost to view. Edward briefly directed his companion how to act, and instantly apprehending with all a wom/m’s quickness the part which she hskl-iA play, she industriously collected such sprigs of blossom and fronds of ferns as lay within her reach. Edward meanwhile had followed the fugitive some twenty yards and cai’efully effaced so far as lie could his footprints and every apparent trace of his flight. Then rejoining his companion with a variely of plants in his hand, he affected in a loud voice to be calling her attention to some object of interest that lay in their path. Thus with lively conversation intermixed of set purpose with repeated peals of laughter they “ tacked” their way back to the hill. When Oliver saw them he shook with subdued laughter at the stratagem which they employed, ■and taking his cue from them he began his descent towards them, stooping, as he went and gathering the plants that' grew at his feet. Thus the three were employed, all of them as happy as May Queen, and receiving each other’s jokes—outrageously flat and halting as they were —with bursts of ready and uproarious laughter. They became suddenly aware that there were three men looking down upon them from the top of the hill. They didn’t suspend operations for all that, but went on talking and laughing and collecting ever new varieties of plants until the lady, at least, was very tired, and they concluded to bring the farce to a dose. The three men came down to the pretended herbalists—sly, suspicious-looking fellows they were, who said as plainly as they could without l articulating it, “ It’ll take a marvellously clever man to outwit us and to break through the meshes of the net we can lay.” One of them stepped a pace or two in advance of the others, and malting a respectful salutation, he said, “We are here in search of a man whom we half suspect to be in hiding in this locality—one of those notorious brigands who have been spilling blood like water, and have made travelling in the country a hazardous and precarious thing.” “ Is it possible,” said Oliver, “ that suc^ l a state of things can exist—that an atrocious villain such as you describe should be able to abide for even an hour in cover so near the quarters of a well organised and efficient police ?” “Possible only under certain conditions of public feeling,” was the reply, “when there is sympathy with brigands and open disloyalty to the laws.”

“Bad state of things that,” said Oliver gravely, “ and indicates a low tone of public morals. ’Tis now some three hours since wo came out of town, and the only person I hive seen at all correspondent to your description was a man of good enough features but most wicked expression of face, who scowled at us with all the fierceness of a dark soul, and be looked this way and that way, like Moses when he was going to slay the Egyptian, as though lie would like to slay us ; but be didn’t, I’m very thankful to say. And now I think of it, No 1,” he continued, turning to his friend, “ th to was something uncommonly like the brand of Cain upon that villain’s brow.”

“True,” said Edward, “the fellow’s face haunted me, though at the time I took little notice of him. Now you speak of it, I do think h« looked dike law ful gall ovvs-prey. ’ ’ The two men in the background pricked up their ears when they heard that, and having been fully informed as to the exact locality (some two miles hack on the Launceston road) in which the suspicious stranger had been seen, they all retraced their steps towards the town, wondering perhaps how they could best invest their several shares of the apprehension-money. “ ’Tvvas well,” said Edward, “ that your ready wit hit upon that skulking lout we met in our path, and turned the scent away from the true direction. Now, allons, for I’m sure the lady must need refreshment and repose.” “ Did you bag your quarry, sir,” asked Oliver of the policeman, whom he met later in the day.

“No, sir. The fact is you were mistaken. We tracked the man you told us of, and found him to be no felon as you surmised, but a respected member of the detective force. The fact is it was he who put us on your trail, and, oddly enough, though yen didn’t know it, you had your revenge by putting us on bis.” And the policeman laughed as though he enjoyed the thing as an uncommonly good joke. “ But what ground could he have for suspecting us ?” asked Oliver. “ Well, you see he was up in the neighbourhood of Miss H -’s, and when he saw you and your companions enter the c-fitage his curiosity was aroused, and, secreting himself in the

shrubbery close to the path, he gathered from a few broken sentences, as well as from traces of inward tumult on the lady’s face when she opened the door, that a tryst had been fixed for to-day, and he warned us to bo on the alert for good game he believed was near at hand. The absence of the lady, however, perplexed him when you met him on the kill, and now he acknowledges that ho has been fairly baffled for once.” “ He may thank bis guardian saint,” said Oliver, with some degree of warmth, “ that we didn’t catch him at his eavesdropping, tor had he fallen into our hands we would have taught him manners —soused him for his paius in the nearest pond.” There is a delightful retreat in the town as St. John’sJSquare, whore one, on privacy intent, can withdraw from the bustle and publicity of the streets, and, under the embowering foliage of flowering shrubs and stately trees, can listen dreamily to the plash of the playing fountain which has been erected in exquisite taste in its midst. But the Botanical Gardexxs carry off the palm as a place of resort. They are of considerable extent, and are laid out with skill and to good effect. Trees and plants from many climes grow in luxuriant profusion side by side, and countless varieties of scented and gorgeous flowers pour forth their blended sweetnesses into the air; but the most notic-able feature of the Gardens in those days was the large number of common fruit trees that found place where only valued exotics were supposed to grow. On inquiry, however, it was found that an old orchard was embraced within the area set apart for public gardens, the contents of which were gradually removed as additional space was required for more valued trees. Meanwhile the produce of the ox’diard was sold by public tender. And just outside the town were God’s acres, haunted by God’s silent figures in weeds who moved wearily and sadly on, as if wishing with all their heart that their pilgrimage were done and the time wore come to them for the knitting up into an everlasting knot of all the broken ties of friendship and love;” and just beyond these, dreary and untended, with no token of love and care visible in it, lay “ Black Hollow,” where the bodies of those who are banged and of suicides are interred.

Oliver had a friend at Evandale on whom be had promised to call, and so he and Edward drove out there by coach one afternoon. The country through which they passed was .beautifully div< rsifiel, but only partially fenced and farmed. From the village of Franklin on to the

Cocked Hat (a district which takes it? name from a. hill of that shape) and thence on to the terminus, the land, which is of an undulating character, is all under careful cultivation. They enjoyed the boundless hospitality, and, not less, the manly intelligent conversation .of a stout true-hearted yeoman who had long been settled in the Dale, whose house was situate on the hank of the South Bsk, and whose orchard yielded delicious fruit*, which were plenteously served at tea. A woeful tale was told of the anxieties and straitened sta‘e of many of tin farmers from the low price of all produce and the steady depreciation of property that was going on. The produce of a large orchard near Launceston had been worth annually some £350, and now the owner can realise scarcely £6O. “ And to what is all that due ?” asked Oliver.

“ To the fact that the other colonists are becoming their own fruit growers and agriculturalists, and the foreign markets are becomingoneby one closed against as.” •‘And, I suppose,” said Oliver, “ ’Tis owing to the dullness of trade that we find so many Tasmanians abroad. They find no escape here perhaps, for their enterprise and energies ?” ‘‘Exactly so,” cried Edward, “and that is why so many other young fellows come oyer here in quest of beautiful and welldowered wives. They don’t like to see our ladies wasting their sweetnesses in the desert air of old maidenhood.”