in the colony as the Ballarat Gang.


“One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and we lay

in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers and six of us, so it

was a close thing, but we emptied four of their saddles at the first volley.

Three of our boys were killed, however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol

to the head of the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the

Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his wicked little

eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every feature. We got away with

the gold, became wealthy men, and made our way over to England without being

suspected. There I parted from my old pals and determined to settle down to a

quiet and respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in the

market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, to make up for the

way in which I had earned it. I married, too, and though my wife died young she

left me my dear little Alice. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed

to lead me down the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I

turned over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was going

well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me.


“I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in Regent

Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his foot.


“‘Here we are, Jack,’ says he, touching me on the arm;

‘we’ll be as good as a family to you. There’s two of us, me

and my son, and you can have the keeping of us. If you

don’t—it’s a fine, law-abiding country is England, and

there’s always a policeman within hail.’


“Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking them off,

and there they have lived rent free on my best land ever since. There was no

rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; turn where I would, there was his

cunning, grinning face at my elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon