A PRECIOUS VILLAIN.

Western Star, Issue 2220, 8 July 1898, Page 3

A PRECIOUS VILLAIN.

B¥ GROSVENOR BUNSTER.

CHAPTER VI (Continued.) ' Nor shall you share in the plunder. Why, you fool, I hare but to tell the admiral of your work here—how you have cheated ; how you have dishonored his name—nay, I have secured proof to have you thrust from his door. Be wise, my good sir, and take your beating in silence. And now go.'

Aid he obeyed without further protest. He felt indeed that protest would be in vain. He knew, too, that the girl would do all she threatened if he moved in the matter. He went forth from the house in a fever of impotent rage. 'Sir,' said he, presenting himself to his uncle, ' I shall be grateful if you use despatch and send me aboard my ship. lam tired of this idle life.' The old man smiled and held forth his hand. «Well spoken, lad,' said he ; we will set about it to-day.' And that night Mr. Knatchbull, carrying a letter of introduction to Captain Marten of the 'Fantom,' departed by the. night coach for Plymouth. His adieus to Mrs Vallers and the captain were made with expressions of the liveliest gratitude for their hospitable treatment. He did not see Miss Jennie, who took good care to be out of the way ; and he departed on his life's journey with as strong a hate towards that young lady as perhaps ever smouldered in a human breast. His nephew gone, the admiral determined upon a return to the Hall. But before leaving he enjoyed another dinner in the little house at Lancaster Gate. When he left the house, he was conscious of some sense of wrong doing, and some dread of his daughter's resentment; for he had given the captain, his cousin, and Jennie Harker a warm invitation to the Hall, which had been heartily accepted. ' I think,' said Mrs Vallers, that evening as the three sat in the drawingroom, ' that our fates are on the turn. The admiral is worth, they tell me, full £15,000 a year.' 'lt will be a grand coup,' said the captain, somewhat ruefully. ' Yet it will be a sacrifice.' ' Why, no. The admiral is a charming old man—l really like him. I shall do my duty.' ' And his daughter ?' asked Jennie. 'We shall see,' was the answer. ' I fancy that my knowledge of the world will enable me to agree with her' — and with this remark they separated for the night.

CHAPTER VII. The career of Richard Knatchbull was creditable to his ability, his zeai, and his courage. He was away five years on the West Indian station, during which time he was concerned in many gallant feats. When he returned to England it was with an badge to his shoulder, and several thousand pounds to his credit of prize money. He now learned, much to his anger, that his chances with his uncle were but small. The old man had succumbed to the tascinations of Mrs Vallers and had married that lady. The captain lived at the Hall comfortably, with his hunter in the stable, and the run of the old sailor's preserves, wine cellar, and occasionally his As for little Jennie Harker, she had married an elderly curate with some money, and had developed into a very popular personage charitable, zealous in church matters, and altogether the antithesis of the young creature who but a few years back belonged to a party of swindlers. Kate Archison, when she discovered that her father was bent upon his folly, left the house, and resided with a relative for some time, when she met a Mr Willoughby—a lieutenant in a machinery regiment, of good family and fortune. It was he who had so thwarted her cousin at Worcester High Him she married. So that Knatchbull came back to England, he found that on all sides those he hated had prevailed. In his anger he did not go near his uncle, who was now kept to his house by the gout; nor did he answer the old man's pitiful letters asking him to visit him. Instead, no sooner was he paid off than he proceeded to London, and there engaged in a course of debauchery, which speedily lessened his account at his bankers. He was a beast, however, and so long as he held the means, never paused in the indulgence of his ignoble passions. He had been gazetted a first lieutenant by reason of his exceptional services, and now having exhausted his means, made interest for a ship. To his surprise and gratification, he was appointed commander of a gun brig—a despatch vessel—and ordered to carry despatches to the admiral on the West Indian station. But his luck now changed. The

peace of Amiens put a stop for a time to the war, and Knatchbuli returned to England well nigh penniless. To make matters worse, his uncle had died, and had left him nothing. He had but small means of his own; and now the mad desire for evil living coming upon him, he was woiked up to a passion of impotent rage. Thus situated, he took advantage of the dismantlement of his brig to start the chronometers and sextants in charge of the master, and taking them to London, obtained £SO on pledge from a pawnbroker in Cornhill. With this money he spent a fortnight in debauchery. Meanwhile the master ot the brig being called upon to render up the instruments in his charge could not do so, and he was arrested. Although his guilt could not be brought home to him, he was so far punished for neglect that he was placed on half pay. Being an elderly man, with wife and family, this meant ruin. But there was no redress. When the war broke out again, he made constant application for employment, but in vain. Commander Knatchbuli, on the contrary, was appointed to a ship, a was to have joined her in a few days, when, by accident, old Matthers strolling down Cornhill, happened to look into the window of a pawnbroker's shop, and there saw, exposed for sale, the chronometer and other instruments, which had been pledged by Knatchbuli.

It did not take Matthers long'to get at the bottom of this matter. He repaired to Bow-street, and then laid the facts before the chief of the police, and the pawnbroker having described the person who had pledged the instruments, step:; were taken for the arrest of the thief. He was easily found. He was living at a coffee-house in Convent Garden. When arrested he was packing up his clothes for his departure for Plymouth. The pawnbroker readily .identified him as the person who had pledged the goods, and other circumstances connected with the disappearance of the chronometer and sextants now cropping up in evidence, Knatchbull was duly committed. His ship sailed without him, and when, joining Coliingwood's squadron, she took part in many a glorious feat, Knatchbull was being tried for a miserable theft. He was found guilty and sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay for a period of fourteen years. Little Jennie Ambleton reading the report of the trial in the Times in her quiet parsonage, found room for a little anxious thought, and for much selfcongratulation that she had so easily read her once admirer's true nature.

Kate Willoughby, with a scared face, told her husband of the disgrace to which her cousin had fallen. The captain—he had been promoted — merely remarked :

' My dear, anybody who knew that amiable man as a boy, could not feel surprise at his disaster. It is perhaps as well that he should be placed under control.'

Andsounpitied —save by his cousin, who contrived to provide him with some comfort and money, and to make interest through her husband for his easier treatment on the voyage out — this precious rascal, with some two hundred others, not so evil as he, sailed for Botany Bay a convict. Arrived at Sydney, his story excited some interest and pity, and as he belonged to such a notable county family, he was sent to keep company with other well-bred and cultivated rascals at Port Macquarie. While there he so conducted himself that he met with high favour from the authorities, and was allowed to go to Sydney on ticket-of-leave, there to find employment in the ordinance stores. But it was not long before it was discovered that Knatchbull made free use of His Majesty's stores in order to find the means for indulgence in brutal debaucheries. For this he was punished. Released, he was again restored to favour, and being now employed in the comptroller-general's office, soon set about more rascality. But this time he managed to evade detection by wrongfully implicating a fellow clerk, who, upon his evidence, was sent to Newcastle to labour in chains for five years. He, poor devil, had no interest to work for him.

Singularly enough, when Governor Macquarie came out, and with him the first battalion of the 73rd regiment, Major Willoughby and his wife and family came out also. And although she had no feeling of affection for her brute cousin, but rather abhorrence, so loyal was this woman that she used all the interest she could to serve Knatchbull. She remembered with pity that the admiral had left him nothing—he who was thought to be the old man's heir —and how this had come about by the influence of Mistress Vallers. Her sympathies therefore were so far aroused that she determined to do all she could to lessen the miseries of her cousin's fate. But it was little use—the man was incorrigible; he had not now the check upon his evil impulses which

his former positions had exercised. He laughed at the idea of reform. All he wanted was money, and he had long determined that he would pause at nothing to obtain it. From Mrs Willoughby he had often received small gifts of money, but her husband having discovered this, sternly forbade its continuance; and indeed, Kate, being told to what uses her rascal cousin put her bounty, could not in decency continue to contribute to his vices.

So as the years passed Knatchbuli became notorious as a ruffian of the worst type—all the more dangerous that he was so clever and able. There was not a device to which he did not resort to get money. His forgeries were so numerous and well known that it came to pass nobody in Sydney would cash a cheque or order from him even though genuine. None would play cards with him -even the lowest villains of his class. He was a marked man even among his associates, as one who would ' put away any pal' to save his own skin. It was to the discredit of authority in those days that this man, who was constantly committing frauds, was not punished as he deserved. For less than he did, men were frequently hanged. For far less they were brutally flogged. Knatchbuli was never flogged ; his sentences were short, his treatment easy. It was most unjust and mistaken clemency. So he lived on until the arrival of Sir George Gipps in the colony. That gentleman knew all about Knatchbull's history in England, and when he learned how consistent had been his conduct in New South Wales, he determined to deal severely with him. Knatchbuli received a hint of this purpose on the part of the Governor, and perhaps determined to be more careful. But his evil impulses were too strong to enable him to maintain this attitude long ; and then he had grown to depend upon the interest exercised on his behalf in certain quarters. Nay, in his drunken orgies he would boast of this.

' Pooh, you dogs !' he would say to the brutes around him, 'you don't understand. lam a gentleman ! I've worn his Majesty's uniform; I've fought the French, curse 'em, and thrashed 'em ; I am a man of rank ! Therefore, I can do that for which such scum as you would be flogged, or even hung. Bah !' But this worthy person at last found that he had exhausted the patience of those in authority, and to his great consternation and disgust was at last informed that he had come to the end of his tether.

CHAPTER VIII. It was the way with authority in those days in New South Wales when a convict of the Port Macquarie order became a nuisance, to ship him off to Norfolk Island, where his special privileges as a rascal of birth and social distinction would have little influence. And at last it was resolved to treat Knatchbull thus. The man was clearly incorrigible—he hesitated at nothing when urged by his passions to acquire the means for th'eir indulgence; yet so clever was he in his petty thefts and swindles that it was always found to be a difficult matter to bring his crimes home to him. He had been employed in the gardens 'of Government House, but was found to have made away with so many tools and other articles that came in his way that he had been sent back to barracks. Then he was employed in the dispensary office-one of the many matters of which he had acquired some knowledge was the art of compounding medicines ; and it was while thus employed that an idea occurred to this abnormal villain which he at once prepared to carry into practical action. He grinned when told that he was to be sent with a batch of twenty-one fellow felons to Norfolk Island. ' I have heard,' he said in the soft voice he used when meditating some fresh villainy—' I have heard that Norfolk Island is a most interesting spot, doctor.' Dr. Macgrath looked at him askance. ' Aye, aye, mebbe !' was his answer. 1 Ye'll doobtless find much to interest ye, me friend. There's a fine gallows there I'm told, and aye mony cool cells where they put ye to meditate and reflect on the vanity of all things human. Aye, ye'll be interested, or I am mistaken.'

' I did not refer to such matters of interest, sir; I spoke with reference to the floor of the island, which I have heard is both rich and varied.' ' Hoot, mon, ye'll hae sma' opportunity o' studying sic, if I judge right. Ye're a bad one, Knatchbull, and I guess they'll remember that where ye're going. There'll be nae kind lady to protect ye there, ye'll ken.' The convict's brow grew black, and he scowled in an ugly way, as he answered: ' Sir, I shall bear my punishment with patience and resignation. lam a much wronged man, but I bear no malice. When do we sail ?' To Be Continued.