Thunderbolt: an Australian story

Front matter

THUNDERBOLT THUNDERBOLT AN AUSTRALIAN STORY BY THE REV. J. MIDDLETON MACDONALD BENGAL CHAPLAIN IN ONE VOLUME LONDON : HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bono at. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAnE I. BARRACOUTA STUCK UP ... ... ... 1 II. GOLD ESCORT ROBBED ... ... ... 23 -I.JS III. THUNDERBOLT AT THE RACES ... ... 47 IV. AUSTRALIAN IMPERIALISM ... ... ... 70 V. THE BLACK PRINCE JUNE ... ... ... 97 TI. TRIAL OF THE GANG ... ... .. 119 yu. eccles' escape ... ... ... ... 140 VIII. AUSTRALIAN COURTSHIP ... ... ... 167 IX. A BISHOP IN A GLUE-POT ... ... ... 195 X. TRIX OR IDA ... ... ... ... 223 XI. TARPOT ON THE TRACK ... ... ... 249 XII. thunderbolt's RACE FOR LIFE ... ... 275 XIII. THE MAJOR'S PROPOSAL ... ... ... 297 XIV. MARRIED ... ... ... ... ... 319 GLOSSARY ... ... ... ... ... THUNDERBOLT.

Chapter I. Barracouta Stuck Up

' Great Cæsar's ghost ! ' ' What a magnificent man ! Who is he ? ' ' Charlie, do put us out of our misery : you know everybody. Is he the Governor's new aide-de-camp, or the latest bank manager, armed cap-a-pie ? ' ' My dear Fred, I suppose that I must plead guilty to knowing a good deal about new-comers. That is Major Edward Devereux, of the 17th Lancers, commonly called Captain Devereux, but sometime granted a brevet majority for distinguished service with Chamberlaiu's Horse in the Indian Mutiny. He has come to Australia on leave ; and while staying at Menzies' Hotel in Melbourne, heard that Thunderbolt, after defying the New South Wales police for six years, had taken to the Victorian roads near Bendigo. Major Devereux applied for and ob tained the post of Superintendent of Police, Bendigo, B THUNDERBOLT. in the hope that his military training and know ledge of frontier work in the Punjab would help his friend, our good Governor, to catch the local fiend in human form, whom you so aptly describe by his vulgar cognomen, Thunderbolt.' ' Charlie, for Heaven's sake pull the bell !

After that information, presumably accurate, you 'deserve a drink. I say, you fellows, what'U you bave ? ' The entire party, some seven or eight, professed their willingness to join the two cronies in drinking to the success ofthe gallant police-officer, now slowly disappearing down Pall Mall towards the police station. Those who had gone to bed quietly at midnight, after a game of whist, took soda with a dash of brandy. The others, who had spent the ' sma' 'oors ayant the twal ' at poker and Yankee grab, inclined to brandy with a dash of soda, or whisky neat. Charlie Melrose, who seemed to his friends a regular walking dictionary, was the sober, staid mining registrar of Bendigo, one of the largest and most profitable 'rushes' in Australia. Every man had to appear before him to take out his miner's right after having pegged out his claim.

Being a conscientious man, he walked or rode to every claim, and somehow or other gained the con fidence of most of the diggers, who by degrees asked him to their tents, and told him a good deal of their history. Of course an immense number of the diggers had pages of their history torn out; but Charlie was a shrewd man, though born under the balmy influence of the Southern Cross, and he BARRACOUTA STUCK UP. 3 could put two and two together, and sometimes added another four in the way of inference, quite as well as his old father, Sandy Melrose, the laird of Aberbrothock. Fred Sibthorpe, his crony, was, like many other cronies, entirely unlike his bosom friend. Educated under Lawson, who was then founding as a small school what afterwards became the Scotch College, Melbourne, the greatest public school in Victoria, Sibthorpe left the school to become a clerk in the Bank of Australasia, and, like some others, thought that his real day began after bank hours.

At any rate he thought far more about what he did from four p.m. to three or four a.m. This type of bank clerk is now-a-days said to be — like the dinornis — extinct. On this particular evening he had started with a couple of hours at the new Victorian football, so different from Rugby or Association, and yet so fascinating to both players and spectators; and after a hearty dinner at the Royal Hotel, had settled down to poker until three a.m., when Corny O'Soolivan, the host, a broth of a boy from the wilds of Connemara, turned them all out. Major Devereux turned in at the police-station and was received by Inspector Ryan and the entire force of twelve mounted police under Sergeant Brady. 'Good-morning, Inspector; I suppose that you know who I am ? ' ' Yes, sir ; Superintendent Hare telegraphed that you were coming.

You've seen a good deal of service, sir, and we are glad to serve under such a distinguished THUNDERBOLT. 4 officer; but if I may venture to advise you, sir, I should say that this business will require not only all your ability and experience, but that you must be prepared for new ideas and novel situations.' ' How so ? ' said the gallant Major, with an almost imperceptible doubt in his tone. ' Well, sir, these constables are the pick of the Victorian Mounted Police, and with all their know ledge of the district, and individual Australian sharpness, they are utterly at sea as to Thunderbolt's whereabouts.' Major Devereux had by this time taken in the powerful muscle and close flesh of each man, dis played (not hidden) by the short, tight jacket, the close-fitting corduroys, and the polished Wellington boots of the troopers as they stood along the wall ; his soldier's pride was stirred by their workman-like appearance, and he felt delighted beyond measure to think that his leave would be spent at the head of such men scouring the country hither and thither, in the hope of catching the fiend who had paralyzed the whole country side. 'Yes, yes, Inspector, there is no doubt that this will be difficult work ; but we must all pull together.

I may have learnt something on the Punjab frontier and among the Rohillas, but each one of your twelve good men and true can help me by his knowledge of the cross-cuts, and by his powers of endurance when out in parties of two or three. We may admit within these walls that failure is possible ■ but with such a physique and such intelligence as I see ranged before me, we ought to run Thunderbolt BARRACOUTA STUCK UR. 5 and his merry men to earth. Now, Sergeant Brady, let me see the horses. His Excellency tells me that he has caused the force to be supplied with over thirty thoroughbreds from the Maribyrnong stud.' Sergeant Brady then led the way to the stables, where about three dozen magnificent horses were quartered. ' Sorr,' said Brady, ' I make bould to assk ye to choose yer ouwn.' ' Why, sergeant ? ' ' Sorr, ye're new to the ways of the counthry and of the force.' ' Oh, I see ; this is a gentle hint that I am a " new chum." ' ' Yer honour doesn't know that an Australian loves his horse just as we love the pig in ould Oiieland, and if ye give a conshtable a horse to his ouwn silf, the Government will get betther work out of the man, and the horse will be in clohver.' ' Ah, yes, I see ; you give me the pick, and after we have chosen our three or four each, every con stable gets a couple, and is responsible for their health and appearance.

I choose that powerful chestnut with the immense chest, this beautiful Arab grey, just such an one as I had in Dera Ghazi Khan, and that rough young bay mare — she looks as if she might develop and do wonders. Perhaps, sergeant, you will favour me by picking my fourth.' ' Sorr, ye've chosen three good horses that'll carry yer honour's weight; but as yer honour has given me the opportunity of choosing for ye the best horse in the houl lot, let me show ye this piebald. Barrin' THUNDERBOLT. the colour, he's the best horse of the lot, and he's the horse to kape yer honour in the front.' ' Yes, sergeant, you have diagnosed me : if he'll give me the brush at the death I don't mind the colour. He's my fourth, or, as you say, my first.' Inspector Ryan and Sergeant Brady then chose their three each, and the former accompanied his new superior to the office to think out the plan of campaign, while the sergeant proceeded to the common-room, where he joined the men in criticizing their new officer. ' Be the immortial sowl of me father in purgatory, I'll niver say one blissid word agin another new chum.

He chose three out of the four bist horses in the sh table. I had intinded the piebald for mysilf ; but he paid me a hoigh complimint, and put me on me honour by asskin' me to choose his fourth, so, bad cess to it, I was obliged to kape up me credit as a knowledgeable judge of horseflesh, and the Major has the piebald.' A roar of laughter from the men greeted this news. Strictly disciplined and absolutely soldier-like in bearing while on duty, the Victorian police are real Australians, and love a joke at any one's expense when off guard in the common-room or at home. Every man present that morning realized that a man had come to rule them and guide them, and they felt gratified that he had had the nous to choose three of the best horses, and that he had cleverly got to windward of Paddy Brady about the piebald, and they felt that Paddy had honoured the force by giving the new chum the best horse.

Any one of them, and Constable Townsend in particular, could make any good horse go as fast as a new chum on a much better horse. This cool assumption of superiority is termed ' Australian blow ' ; in most matters it is exquisitely amusing to a polished cosmopolitan, but in the matter of riding, the hard rider of the Pytchley Hunt, or the gentleman rider of the Galway Steeplechase, finds that he has learnt something after he has been out after an ' old man ' kangaroo. It isn't the pace of the ' old man,' or the exhilaration of the eucalyptus breeze, though these are both noticeable; it is the consummate horsemanship of the young man riding in front of him, riding at full gallop through the bush, right under the foliage of a she-oak, crushing through gum saplings, bending right or left or even backwards to the horizontal position, in view of his belief, that where the horse can get through he can.

The Australian bush-rider is a part of his or her horse. As Dick Marston says in Robbery under Arms, ' Sergeant Goring was a real smart, dashing chap, a sood rider for an Englishman — i. e. he could sit most horses, and hold his own with us natives anywhere but through scrub and mountain country. No man can ride there, I don't care who he is, the same as we can, unless he's been at it all his life. There we have the pull.

Give a native a good horse and thick country, and he'll lose any man living that's tackled the work after he's grown up.' The above sentiments were partially expressed, or alluded to, by more than one gumsucker ; but the THUNDERBOLT. spokesman of the party was the aforesaid Townsend, a giant gumsucker six feet two inches high, and rather slim, but of great vital energy ; a youngster who had ridden overland with cattle from Toowoomba to Melbourne, say 1200 miles, and could be guaranteed to ride from six a.m. till noon, and from two to six p.m., for weeks at a time, with the temperature 157° in the sun. ' Well, sergeant, the Major looks as if he'd just stepped out of a bandbox, but his choosing three of the best nags is very hot coppers ; and as we've got to ride with him, not against him, there's no cause to grumble, and I vote we all bolt for the stables, on the principle of old Jock Macgregor, the sly grog shanty keeper at Lower Bendigo Creek.' ' Constable Townsend, wad ye be after tellin' us the grain of sense at the bottom of yer nonsense ? ' ' Yes, sergeant ; Jock's principle was, " Every man for himsel', an' deil tak' the hin'most." ' With which Parthian shot the frisky young cornstalk opened the door and made for the stables, whither he was followed by the eleven other apostles of law and order, who were about to be sent out in bands of twos and threes through the district, each with a spare horse in his temporary home.

In the wattle and daub shed with the deep, cool verandahs that did duty as the Superintendent's office, Major Devereux sat thinking of men and women far away on the plains below the Himalayas ; of the pagans whom he had slain, and of the English women who had conquered him ; and then his thoughts wandered away to the country house in England, to the home of his boyhood. But his reverie was abruptly closed by the clatter of a horse's hoofs as a young gumsucker rode in at the gate, and pulled his horse up on his haunches at the Major's front door. ' I say, mister, they want you and your squad out at Barracouta. Thunderbolt was there last night. What good you'll do there twelve hours afterwards ain't for me to say, but old Gregory asked me to " give you the office," so I rode in.' By this time every man in the force, from the Major downwards, was out and within earshot, and within ten minutes Major Devereux, Inspector Ryan, and six constables were pounding down Pall Mall, and heading out along the high-road towards Castlemaine.

Ten miles out they came to a slip rail by the railway cross ing, which Inspector Ryan cleared ; the Major followed suit, and was delighted beyond measure to find that every one of the squad got over without touching. Careering along a bridle-track through rye-grass for about five miles, the cavalcade came to a small pass between two hills, and here the Inspector suggested Indian file and loaded carbines ; but the precautions were unnecessary, as not a sound was heard. Half-a-mile further on, the country opened out again, but showed dense scrub and tree-ferns. Right through the bush rode the Inspector, ably backed up by the Major; but wherever the unevenness of the ground gave licence to an advance in echelon, Town send was sure to be ahead, though most careful to fall into his proper respectful place when the track reappeared.

THUNDERBOLT. 10 This part of the ride was an eye-opener to the Lancer accustomed to follow Her Majesty's hounds while his troop was quartered at Hounslow, and of late feeling his way along 'kutcha' roads on the borders of Baluchistan and Afghanistan. After two or three miles of this scrub the party came down a hill-side to the border of a creek, and skirting this for a mile and a half rode into the home paddock of Barracouta, and were met at the front steps of the homestead by Mr. Samuel Gregory, M.L.C., owner of Barracouta Station in Victoria, Wombah Wombah on the Warrego river in Queens land, and a charming house in Toorak, a suburb of Melbourne. His handsome Tasmanian wife of ample figure, and his son Ted, and his two daughters, Ida and Bessie, miniatures of their mother, stood on the verandah above.

Inspector Ryan introduced Major Devereux to Mr. Gregory, who in turn introduced him with dignified simplicity to the family, and the two officers went inside to hear the news. The constables went off to the stables and thence to the kitchen in true British style. It appeared from Mr. Gregory's narrative, that just about sundown two ' sun-downers ' appeared at the stockyard, and asked the manager for something to eat. According to the rule of the station, they were given a meal on the understanding that in the morn ing they would chop logs, split rails, or otherwise earn their grub. The family had dinner at seven o'clock, and the boundary riders and station hands had, after their ' high tea,' gone to a shepherd's hut a mile away to hear the news brought by a man travelling with sheep — that the Deniliquin branch of the Bank of New South Wales had been stuck up, and £2000 in £1 bank-notes lifted by the gang.

The burning question of the day was, ' Who had done it ? Was it Thunderbolt ? ' Some thought it was ; others thought that Thunderbolt could not have got so far after the Piggoreet and Burrumbeet affairs. The whole of the men on the station except the Gregorys, father and son, were listening with breath less interest to the story ; but after a time the above theories were discussed, and just as round a camp fire in the Holy Land beautiful original theories are advanced by various tourists, which seem so original until one finds next day that the one had uncon sciously reproduced Baedeker's, another Cook's, and a third Murray's Guide-book, so the one party of uppercrust boundary riders held to the jointed view of The Australasian, that Thunderbolt had done the trick at Deniliquin, while the radical shepherd doggedly upheld the view of The Age, that it was another.

During a lull in the fierce argument the wooden latch clicked, and two heavily-armed men entered with the painfully familiar greeting — ' Bail up, mates.' No one had any arms, so nothing could be done, and a voice outside called out, ' Is it all right ? ' and on the answer ' All right,' the man outside rode away to THUNDERBOLT. 12 the front steps of Mr. Gregory's house, walked up to the front door, and passing along the hall entered the drawing-room just as Ida was finishing the last note or two of Waiting. With a bow to Mrs. Gregory the man advanced to Mr. Gregory, and said — ' Mr. Gregory, pardon me for intruding upon your family privacy. My name is Thunderbolt; my men have secured every man on the station in Tom Overend's hut. If you would care to go alone to your safe, please do so. I should be glad to have £500 cash, but do not disturb your papers.

I beard in Bendigo that you cashed a cheque for £1000 two days ago. I should be sorry to inconvenience you, but " needs must when the devil drives." ' Mr. Gregory saw that rugged honesty was the best plan, and produced from the safe in the next room £600, of which Thunderbolt appropriated £500, and then said — ' Pray continue the music, ladies ; the reports that I am a fiend in human form are baseless. It is uufortunately true that dire necessity caused me to ask your good husband for £500, which sum he at once placed in my hands without security for its return, and I propose to ask your boy Ted to let me have his well-known iron-grey horse that he broke in so carefully under my own eyes last week ; but I assure you, madam, that the prayers taught me by my mother have had this effect, that I molest no woman, old or young, gentle or simple.

Please per suade Miss Ida to sing Down by the Deep Sad Sea ; I hear that she sings it well, and I was born by the dear old sea at Southwold in Suffolk.' While Mrs. Gregory, with her Tasmanian good breeding, went to persuade the horrified Ida to sing, Ted broke in with — ' You don't mean to say that you were up the glen and saw me break in the iron-grey ? You must be the very devil ! What a trouble it was ; and then to have to hand him over ! It's just my confounded luck.' ' My dear young man, the dire necessity of which I spoke is my only excuse for asking the loan of your stand-up conquest. You surely would not prefer that I should insult your generosity by passing you by, and venturing to ask Miss Bessie for the loan of her cream Arab, on which she wanders such distances ? In these days, when persons of bad breeding from Ratcliffe Highway, New York, Amsterdam, and every other dam are prospecting for gold, ladies should have a cavalier when out riding.' Ida, having become convinced that the extraor dinary stranger meant no evil towards the family, now struck up the harmonious prelude of DOWN BY THE DEEP SAD SEA.

Down by the deep sad sea, down where the sea-gulls roam, I wander on tlie rockbound shore where stood my boyhood's home ; But years have changed tliose happy scenes that once were dear to me, For all I loved in life now sleep down by the deep sad sea. Down by the deep sad sea evening shades draw nigh ; I gaze upon its bosom soft with sad and tearful eye ; And mem'ry takes its wayward flight to scenes that used to be, And leaves me sitting lone and sad down by the deep sad sea. THUNDERBOLT. 14 Down by the dear old sea morning sweetly smiles ; I see the white sails flitting across its breast for miles ; The playful white caps chase and leap each other in their glee : Oh, when I die, here let me rest, down by the dear old sea. While her natural ballad voice, unspoilt by en deavours to unravel the mysteries of Italian operatic airs, was rolling out Hays' glorious old melody, Bessie was studying with feminine curiosity the brown curls, the steady brown eyes, the thick coarse tweed-jacket, the digger's red flannel shirt, the tight moleskins, and high Mexican loose knee-boots of the man sitting before her, with the far-away look of old association in his eyes as he thought of the ballad's words.

At its close Thunderbolt rose, and thanked Ida for taking him back to his boyhood's home, with its beach and boats and ' old salts.' ' Yes, Miss Gregory, I shall never see the old place ; but if you ever do, go into the choir of the minster inside the rood-screen into one of the Corporation stalls, and offer up a prayer for the soul of the Southwold boy whom you pleased one night at Barracouta. Good-night, Miss Bessie; take the advice of a friend, and don't ride alone; the days are very evil. The other night you got off your mare to give her water at the lagoon over One Tree Hill : my men are not all gentlemen ; as one of them thought you fair game to carry off, I imperilled my future by damning and blasting his soul. Your mother is the same kind, good woman that she was in Hobart Town. As Colonel Blake's daughter she was kindness itself.

And now, Ted, please saddle the iron-grey. I shall want all his speed and strength before dawn.' Ted went out to obey the royal request, and Mr. Gregory honourably intimated to Thunderbolt that, as a magistrate, he must inform the police at the earliest opportunity. Thunderbolt then rode out to the shepherd's hut and ordered out every soul. ' Now, look here, you fellows, we've surprised you this time ; but as not one of you has ever done any thing against us, we do not propose to loot you. All's fair in love and war. You have a perfect right to defend your master's property, and to warn the police to-morrow ; but, in all you do, keep on the square. Every dog has his day. Look sharp and get on your horses, my gaoler friends. Has any man here anything to say before we take French leave ? ' ' I say, governor,' said the cook, ' what does the old man say ? ' ' Mr. Gregory said and did what a sensible gentle man would.

He presented me with £500, and in formed me that he must put the police on my track.' ' The devil he did ! ' ' Yes, he did, and I honour him for it. Are you ready, you two ? ' ' Yes.' ' Off we go then.' ' Good-night, boys ; your discussion as to Deniliquin was most interesting,' and the jolly laugh of the three echoed and re-echoed on the still night air as THUNDERBOLT. the trio rode over the paddock thinking of their standing outside and listening to the pros and cons of the argument two hours ago. Said Seth Thomas, the Yankee stable-keeper, ■'Well, I'm derned if this don't lick Texas ways. They never took a red cent from us poor chaps. I cann't say that I liked the phiz of our guard, but that capen has an almighty influence over them.' The manager, Alf Newbold, here suggested making tracks to the home station; and as everybody wanted to hear more about the affair, they all marched over in a dazed way to the house, where Mr. Gregory and Ted were just setting out for the stables.

Newbold offered to ride into Bendigo, but Mr. Gregory said that no good could come of riding so far on a dark night ; and finally it was agreed that in the morning Ted Gregory and Newbold should follow the tracks of the bushrangers as far as the country lay in the open, for the gang had not gone by any road; and that Dave Merrill, a young boundary rider, who had just left school at Melbourne, and was supposed to be learning station work on Barracouta, should ride into Bendigo and inform the police. Major Devereux listened without a word until the whole narrative of the Gregorys was finished. His impassive features showed nothing of his astonishment nt the simple daring of the plan to successfully ' stick up ' a station, with over a dozen men living at head quarters. His first question was — ' Is this chivalrous conduct towards women common among bushrangers ?

Is it universal ? ' Mrs. Gregory answered — ■ ' It was not common in Tasmania, but there the bushrangers were escaped convicts. In Victoria it is not universal, but the leaders of the gangs appear to be, as you say, chivalrous, and all of them seem to want money only.' ' Yes,' chimed in Mr. Gregory. ' I felt nervous, but not in danger.' ' May I venture,' said the Major, ' to agree with this desperado's most wholesome counsel, that these young ladies should not ride far or alone. There is more in his advice than appears at first sight. To the common herd beauty is not sacred when unprotected; and, if they were carried off, even Thunderbolt would demand a ransom.' ' Mother,' said Bessie, ' what he said was quite true. I got off Fairy to'let her have a cooler drink in the deeper water of the lagoon, out at the end of that log that goes out into the water, and ' (blushing) ' I must humbly confess that I vaulted into my saddle from the log, and perhaps showed more of my shoes than I ought to have done.' Ida and her mother promptly got Bessie out of the room in order to rate her soundly, and also to get lunch ready for the officers.

Ted enthusiastically offered to take the officers across to a creek where there was a mark of fresh horses' hoofs, but Mr. Gregory counselled lunch first. In the interval Inspector Ryan took down the height, clothes, features, etc. of all three men, the height and peculiarities, etc. of the horses, particularly of Ted's iron-grey ; and he spent some time with Mr. Newbold, c THUNDERBOLT. 18 the manager, asking about the direction whence the sundowner-bushrangers had arrived, as compared with the direction of their ride across country. An astute officer, he looked at all possible points in the beginning of such a difficult problem. He was perfectly certain that some members of the gang or their friends were in Bendigo once a week for news, and he felt sure that large numbers of the ' cockatoos ' and woodcutters were active sympathizers, and, above and beyond this, that Jock Macgregor, of the sly grog shanty, just off the Castlemaine road, and others of his confreres, were in the pay of Thunderbolt.

The main point to discover was, however, where was Thunderbolt's den ? While this inquiry was going on, Major Devereux and Mr. Gregory were smoking Havanas in the office, by courtesy called a study, and the Major learnt a great deal about the politics of the colony, and of the relative merits of South Downs and merino sheep. At lunch every one made a hearty meal off roast mutton and cold beef, salad, and turnips, and apple tart, the whole washed down with the Australian white wine Riesling. Almost immediately after lunch the Gregorys and Mr. Newbold accompanied the police across the paddocks to the aforesaid creek where Ted had seen the hoofs on the muddy bank ; aud Constable Cross, who had been out with black trackers, proceeded to track the route over hill and dale, by a hoof-mark on a leaf here, and by a dent on a tussock there, until the party came to a sandhill, where the twelve hoofs were distinctly visible, and Ted could swear to his iron-grey's broad off fore hoof.