The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

318 THE TRACK OF MIDNIGHT. were not on guard agreed after some further debate to regard Johnson as the leader both on that and subsequent expeditions in the place of Giles, who had turned tail at a critical moment, and for the present occasion Farrell and Wilton were joined in the command, the former as lieutenant, the latter as guide. But the arrangement was made too late; it was a case of locking the stable door after the horse was stolen. The guards were not alarmed once during the night, and by morning everybody thought that the game was up, and that the quarry had escaped. The proposed leadership was ratified by the assemblage, and the first act of the new command was to despatch a party to follow the tracks made by the retreating bushranger the night before. They soon returned with the infor- mation that the tracks led to a‘hard, stony patch of country where every trace of them was lost. ‘Then we’ll push on to the flat and see what can be learned there,”’ Johnson exclaimed. They learned a good deal more there than they anticipated. ‘The carcasses of Wilton’s bullocks and the bushranger’s horse were in an advanced state of decomposition, and the body of the bushranger would have been the same only it had been almost destroyed by a big fire which had been built over it and which was still burning. The bridle and saddle had also been taken from the horse. The water had drained from the flat, though the soil was still soft and muddy, and upon it recent impressions of horses’ hoofs were everywhere evi- dent. Johnson, Farrell and Wilton rode out to the dray which appeared from the distance to have canted over. When they came nearer to it they saw that the bushrangers had vented their spite still further in destroying what they could not use, and had cut through the heavy axle and damaged the wheels so much that the dray was nothing more than a useless wreck. A fire had also been lit in the space where Wilton had camped and the bales of wool hopelessly damaged. ‘‘ Blind, useless destruction,’’ Johnson said as they viewed the wreck. ‘“’There’s some excuse, though little enough, for them sticking up stations for food and money, but this sort of business 1s beyond everything. I would hang them or shoot them like rats if I came across them after this.’’- ‘‘Tt’s a mean sort of thing to do, for there’s neither gain nor revenge in it,’’? Farrell added. Wilton looked at his ruined property without speaking. {t had been hard enough to lose his bullock team as he had done, but to have his dray wantonly destroyed with its load, and lose, not only all his belongings, but the money he would have earned by delivering the goods in Sydney, was a bitter experi- ence. Several of the other men had by this time ridden over and joined the three. When they saw what had been done, they were loud in their protes- tations of wrath against the destroyers, and of sympathy for Wilton. Wilton sat on his horse, brooding over the disasters which had come upon him since the unlucky evening when, ignoring all suggestions of caution, he Eomicbooks 3