“the impudent scoundrel! just look at this, mamma. i should like to see him at it,” exclaimed sydney lawson in great wrath, as he handed his mother a very dirty note which a shepherd had brought home. on coarse, crumpled grocer’s paper these words were written in pencil: “master sidney i want your mare the chesnit with the white starr soe you send her to 3 mile flat first thing tomorrer or i shall have to cum an fetch her.—warrigal.”
2
“sam says,” sydney went on in rising rage, “that the fellow had the cheek to give it him just down by the slip-panels. he rode up to sam and paddy fury as coolly as if he was coming up to spend the night at the house. if the great hulking fellows had a mite of pluck, they’d have knocked him off his horse, instead of taking orders from a chap like that. paddy is fond enough of bragging about his foightin’ when there’s nobody to fight. but they’re like all the people about here; three parts of them funk the bushrangers, and the rest are in league with them. he may well call himself warrigal, the sneaking dingo! he wouldn’t have been game to talk about sticking us up, if he hadn’t known father was away. send him my venus! mr. warrigal must have gone cranky.”
3
sydney lawson, who made this indignant speech at the tea-table of the wonga-wonga station (and almost made the hot potato-cake jump off the table with the thumps he gave it), was a tall, slim lad of fourteen. he and his mother had been left in charge of the station, whilst his father took a mob of cattle overland to port phillip. sydney was very proud of having the key of the store, counting in the sheep, peppering mangled calves with strychnine to poison the native dogs that had mangled them, and riding about all day cracking his stock-whip, heading back store-bullocks that seemed inclined to make a rush at him, looking after the men, and when meat was wanted, driving the beast into the stock-yard himself, and shooting it with his own gun. sydney thought himself a man now, and was very angry that warrigal should think he could be frightened “like a baby.”
4
this warrigal was a bushranger, who, with one or two mates, wandered about in that part of new south wales, doing pretty much as he liked. they stopped the mail, “bailed up” dray-men and horsemen on the road by the two and three dozen together; “stuck up” solitary stores, and publics, and stations, and once had been saucy enough to stick up a whole township. the police couldn’t get hold of them. some people said that the troopers were too lazy, and some that they were too cowardly. the truth was that the troopers did not know the bush like the bushrangers, and could not help themselves, as they could, to fresh horses when the ones they were riding were knocked up; and, besides, the bushrangers had “bush telegraphs”—spies who let them know where it was safe to rob, and did all they could to put the troopers on false scents.
the note that sydney had received caused a good deal of excitement at the wonga-wonga tea-table. miss smith, who helped mrs. lawson in the house, and taught sydney’s sisters and his brother harry, had not long come out from london, and was in a great fright.
“oh, pray send him the horse, master sydney,” she cried, “or we shall all be murdered in our beds. you’ve got so many horses, one can’t make any difference.”
all the little lawsons instantly turned on miss smith, though she was their governess.
5
“i thought you english people were so brave,” said satirical miss gertrude: “you make yourselves out to be in your history-books.”
but sydney, though miss smith had talked as if venus was just like any common horse, was very fond of miss smith. she was pretty, and only five years older than himself. besides, he was acting master of the house, and a little gentleman to boot. so he said,
“be quiet, children; you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. miss smith isn’t used to the colony.—don’t be alarmed, miss smith. i will see that you come to no harm.”
and then he began to talk to his mother about what they had better do. just because he was a manly little fellow, he was not ashamed to take his mother’s advice.
6
now mrs. lawson was as little disposed as sydney to let mr. warrigal do as he liked. she knew that her husband would have run the risk of being “stuck up,” if he had been at home, rather than have obeyed the bushranger’s orders, and that he would be very pleased if they could manage to defy the rascal. still, it was a serious matter to provoke messrs. warrigal and co. to pay the house a visit. she felt sure that sydney would fight, and she meant to fire at the robbers herself if they came; but would she and sydney be able to stand against three armed men? not a shepherd or stockman or horsebreaker about the place was to be depended upon; and ki li, the chinaman cook, though a very good kind of fellow, would certainly go to bed in his hut if the robbers came by day, and stay in bed if the robbers came by night. john jones, the “new chum” ploughman, whose wife was mrs. lawson’s servant, slept in the house, and he was too honest to band with the bushrangers in any way; “but then, he’s such a sheep, you know, mamma,” said sydney.
7
there was time to send word to the police at jerry’s town; but who was to go? any of the men, except ki li and john jones, would be as likely as not to go to warrigal’s camping-place instead of to the jerry’s town police-barracks; and ki li would be afraid to go out in the dark, and john jones would be afraid to ride anything but one of the plough horses, and that only at an amble. it wouldn’t do for sydney to leave the place, since he was the only male effective on it; so what was to be done? but little harry had heard his mother and brother talking, and, as soon as he made out their difficulty, he looked up and said,
“why, mamma, i can go. syd, lend me your stock-whip, and let me have guardsman.”
8
neither mother nor brother had any fear about harry’s horsemanship (up-country australian boys can ride when they are not much bigger than monkeys), but they scarcely liked to turn the little fellow out for a long ride by night. however, he knew the way well enough. three-mile flat didn’t lie in his road, and if he didn’t fall in with any of the warrigal gang, nobody would harm him; and, finally, there was no one else to go to jerry’s town who would or could go in time.
so sydney went to the stable and slipped the bridle on venus, and rode her down to the flat by the creek, to drive up guardsman. and then he put the saddle and bridle on guardsman and brought him round to the garden-gate, where harry stood flicking about sydney’s stock-whip very impatiently, whilst his mamma kissed him and tied a comforter round his neck. sydney gave harry a leg up, and cantered with him to the slip-panels, to take them down for him.
9
as soon as he was through, harry shouted “good night,” and gave guardsman his head, and was off like a little wild boy. after one or two failures, that made his face tingle, he managed to crack sydney’s stock-whip almost as cleverly as sydney could have done. it rang through the still moonlight bush, and when sydney lost sight of him, harry, tired of the monotony of flat riding, was steering guardsman stem on for a grey log that glistened like frosted silver in the moonshine.
when sydney had stabled venus again, and—an unusual precaution—turned the key in the rusty padlock, and when he had given a look about the outbuildings, it was time for him to go in to supper and family prayers. he read the chapter, and mrs. lawson read the prayers. she was a brave woman, but, with her little girls about her, and her little boy away, she couldn’t keep her voice from trembling a little when she said, “lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, o lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night.”
10
then the girls kissed their mother and their brother, and said “good night;” and miss smith kissed mrs. lawson, and said “good night,” and said “good night” to sydney without kissing him (though he looked as if he would have liked her to); and john jones and his wife said “good night, ma’am,” “good night, sir,” just as if sydney had been a grown-up master, and went to bed to snore like pigs, though they were dreadfully afraid of bushrangers. sydney went into his mother’s bed-room, and looked at the blunderbuss that stood by the bed-head (mrs. lawson had selected the blunderbuss as her weapon, because she thought she “must be sure to hit with that big thing”), and he showed her once more how to pull the trigger. then he bade her “good night,” and went through the house, snacking the windows and fastening the shutters, though that was as unusual at wonga-wonga as locking the stable-door. and then he went along the verandah to his own little room at one end, where he locked himself in, and drew the charge of his gun and loaded it again, and looked at the chambers of his revolver, and put the caps on, and laid it down on a chair ready to his hand. when his preparations were completed, he said his prayers, and tumbled into bed with his clothes on, and slept like a top.
11
harry wasn’t expected home until next day. he had been told to sleep at the “macquarie arms,” in jerry’s town, when he had left his message at the barracks, and come home at his leisure in the morning. about four miles from wonga-wonga, the dreariest part of the road to jerry’s town—begins a two miles’ stretch of dismal scrub. harry put his heels into guardsman’s sides to make him go even faster than he was going when they went into the scrub, and was pleased to hear a horse’s hoofs coming towards him from the other end. he thought it was a neighbour riding home to the next station; but it was warrigal. as soon as harry pulled up guardsman to chat for a minute, warrigal laid hold of the bridle and pulled harry on to the saddle before him.
12
“let’s see, you’re one of the wonga-wonga kids, ain’t you?” said the robber. “and where are you off to at this time of night? oh! oh! to fetch the traps, i guess; but i’ll stop that little game.”
just then harry gave a coo-ey! he couldn’t give a very loud one, for he was lying like a sack on the robber’s horse; but it made warrigal very savage. he put the cold muzzle of a pistol against harry’s face, and said,
“you screech again, youngster, and you won’t do it no more.”
and then warrigal took harry and the horses into the scrub, and gagged harry with a bit of iron he took out of his pocket, and bailed him up to a crooked old honeysuckle tree, with a long piece of rope he carried in his saddle-bags.
“don’t frighten yourself; i’ll tell your mar where you are, and you’ll be back by breakfast,” said warrigal, as he got on guardsman, driving his own tired horse before him.
13
it wasn’t pleasant for a little boy to be tied tight to an ugly old tree in that lonely place, and to hear the curlews wailing just as the bushrangers call to one another, and the laughing jackasses hooting before daylight, as if they were making fun of him. but what vexed brave little harry most was that he hadn’t been able to get to the police.
14
next morning, just as day was breaking, warrigal and his two mates, with crape masks on, rode up to wonga-wonga. i don’t know which were the bigger cowards, those three great fellows going to bully a lady and a boy, or the half-dozen and more of great fellows about the place who they knew would let them do it. they made as little noise as they could, but the dogs began to bark, and woke sydney. when he woke, however, warrigal had got his little window open, and was covering him with his pistol. sydney put out his hand for his revolver, and though warrigal shouted, “throw up your hands, boy, or i’ll shoot you through the head,” he jumped out of bed and fired. he missed warrigal, and warrigal missed him, but warrigal’s bullet knocked sydney’s revolver out of his hand, and one of warrigal’s mates made a butt at the bedroom door and smashed it, and he and warrigal (were they not heroes?) rushed into the room, and threw sydney down on the bed, and pinioned his arms with a sheet. the other bushranger was watching the horses. by this time the whole station was aroused. the men peeped out of their huts, half frightened and half amused; not one of them came near the house. john jones and his wife piled their boxes against their room-door, and then crept under the bed. miss smith went into hysterics, and gertrude and her sisters couldn’t help looking as white as their night-dresses, though they tried hard to show miss smith how much braver native girls were than english, even if they did not know so much french, and use of the globes, and mangnall’s questions. mrs. lawson had fired off her blunderbuss, but it had only broken two panes of the parlour-window, and riddled the verandah-posts; so wonga-wonga was at the bushrangers’ mercy.
15
they ransacked the house, and took possession of any little plate and jewellery and other portable property they could find. when the robbers had packed up what they called the “swag,” and put it on one of their horses, they pulled ki li out of bed, and made him light a fire, and cook some chops, and boil some tea. (in the australian bush the hot water isn’t poured on the tea, but the leaves are boiled in the pot.) then they marched mrs. lawson, and miss smith, and sydney, and his sisters, and mr. and mrs. jones, and ki li, into the keeping-room, and sat down to breakfast, with pistols in their belts, and pistols laid, like knives and forks, on the table. the bushrangers tried to be funny, and pressed mrs. lawson and the other ladies to make themselves at home and take a good meal. one of the robbers was going to kiss miss smith, but sydney, pinioned as he was, ran at him, and butted him like a ram. he was going to strike sydney, but gertrude ran between them, calling out, “oh, you great coward!” and warrigal felt ashamed, and told the man to sit down.
16
“we call him politeful bill,” warrigal remarked in apology; “but he ain’t much used to ladies’ serciety.”
when breakfast was over, warrigal asked sydney where the mare was.
“find her yourself,” said sydney.
“well, there won’t be much trouble about that,” answered warrigal. “she’s in the stable, i know, and you’ve locked her in, for i tried the door. i suppose you’re too game to give up the key, my young fighting-cock? you’re game and no mistake, master cornstalk, and i’m a native, too.”
“more shame for you,” said sydney.
17
“that be blowed,” went on warrigal; “and since you’re so sarcy, master sydney, you shall come and see me take your mare. you might as well ha’ sent her instead of sending for the traps, and then i shouldn’t ha’ got the bay horse too”—and he pointed to guardsman hung up on the verandah.
there was no time to ask what had become of harry. warrigal hurried sydney by the collar to the stable, whilst the other men mounted their horses, and unhooked guardsman to be ready for their captain. warrigal blew off the padlock with his pistol, but venus was fractious, and wouldn’t let him put on her halter. whilst he was dodging about in the stable with her, sydney heard hoofs in the distance. nearer and nearer came the tan-ta-ta-tan-ta-ta-tan-ta-ta. four bluecoats galloped up to the slip-panels—three troopers and a sergeant; the sergeant with harry on his saddlebow. in a second harry was down, and in three seconds the slip-panels were down too. up the rocky rise came the troopers as if they were riding a steeple-chase. the waiting bushrangers saw the morning sun gleaming on their carbines as the police dashed between the aloes and the prickly pears, and, letting guardsman go, were off like a shot. sydney banged to the stable-door, and, setting his back against it, shouted for help. his mother and gertrude, and even john jones, as the police were close at hand, rushed to his aid; and up galloped the troopers. instead of bagging venus, warrigal was bagged himself. he fired a bullet or two through the door, and talked very big about not being taken alive; but he thought better of it, and in an hour’s time he was jogging off to jerry’s town with handcuffs on and his legs tied under his horse’s belly.
“warrigal was bagged himself.”
18
if warrigal had not bailed up little harry, most likely he would not have been taken; for when harry had got to jerry’s town, he would have found all the troopers away except one. in the scrub, however, harry heard the sergeant and his men returning from a wild-goose chase they had been sent on by the bush telegraphs, and managing at last to spit the gag out of his mouth, he had given a great co-oo-oo-oo-oo-ey!
19
after that night miss smith always called sydney mr. sydney, and sydney let harry ride venus as often as he liked.
