We couldn't stop boxed up in the Hollow day after day, and month after month, shooting and horse-breaking, doing nothing and earning nothing.
If we went outside there were ten times more men looking out for us than ever, ten times more chance of our being tracked or run down than ever.
That we knew from the newspapers.How did we see them? Oh, the old way.
We sent out our scout, Warrigal, and he got our letters and papers too, from a `sure hand', as Starlight said the old people in the English wars used to say.
The papers were something to see.First he brought us in a handbill that was posted in Bargo, like this: --FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD.
The above reward will be paid to any one giving information as to the whereabouts of Richard Marston, James Marston, and a man whose name is unknown, but who can be identified chiefly by the appellation of Starlight.
`Pleasing way of drawing attention to a gentleman's private residence,'
says Starlight, smiling first and looking rather grim afterwards.
`Never mind, boys, they'll increase that reward yet, by Jove!
It will have to be a thousand a piece if they don't look a little sharper.'
We laughed, and dad growled out --
`Don't seem to have the pluck, any on ye, to tackle a big touch again.
I expect they'll send a summons for us next, and get old Bill Barkis, the bailiff at Bargo, to serve it.'
`Come, come, governor,' says Starlight, `none of that.
We've got quite enough devil in us yet, without your stirring him up.
You must give us time, you know.Let's see what this paper says.
"Turon Star"! What a godsend to it!
`BUSH-RANGERS!
`STARLIGHT AND THE MARSTONS AGAIN.
`The announcement will strike our readers, if not with the most profound astonishment, certainly with considerable surprise, that these celebrated desperadoes, for whose apprehension such large sums have been offered, for whom the police in all the colonies have made such unremitting search, should have been discovered in our midst.
Yet such is the case.On this very morning, from information received, our respected and efficient Inspector of Police, Sir Ferdinand Morringer, proceeded soon after midnight to the camp of Messrs.Clifford and Hastings.
He had every reason to believe that he would have had no difficulty in arresting the famous Starlight, who, under the cognomen of the Honourable Frank Haughton, has been for months a partner in this claim.
The shareholders were popularly known as "the three Honourables", it being rumoured that both Mr.Clifford and Mr.Hastings were entitled to that prefix, if not to a more exalted one.
`With characteristic celerity, however, the famous outlaw had shortly before quitted the place, having received warning and been provided with a fast horse by his singular retainer, Warrigal, a half-caste native of the colony, who is said to be devotedly attached to him, and who has been seen from time to time on the Turon.
`Of the Marston brothers, the elder one, Richard, would seem to have been similarly apprised, but James Marston was arrested in his cottage in Specimen Gully.Having been lately married, he was apparently unwilling to leave his home, and lingered too long for prudence.
