The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

224 TTHE TRACK OF MIDNIGHT. Plover’s record with the wardens at the end of the twelve months was as bad as it could be. ‘“ Directly he got out he went straight to the young officer’s quarters, and, of course, came face to face with his wife. She screamed and fainted, and the convict servants rushing in, had him secure in half a minute, for they | had not forgotten their murdered mate nor the class of justice that had been given to the ex-official, and what would have been given to them had they killed even one of themselves. News was sent to the husband, and by the time he arrived on the scene, I dare say the case for the prosecution was all cut and dried among the convict witnesses. Plover was sent back to jail at once, and when he was brought up for trial the lady was too ill to appear as a witness. But the servants were there, and they told so specious a tale, and bore one another out so fully, even to the smallest detail, that the judge said it was absurd for Plover to assert their evidence was all lies, and that for his part he had never heard such admirable witnesses. They all got their tickets of leave, and Plover five years and a flogging. ‘The latter part was com- muted, at the earnest solicitation of the young officer, and Plover was sent away to help make the roads into the interior. ‘Three years later there was a revolt in the camp and Plover, with others, escaped. ‘The young couple in Sydney had in the meantime been blessed with a little daughter, who was their one great pride and joy. A month after Plover’s escape the child vanished. She had been put to sleep in the after- noon and was under the care of a nurse, and no one had any idea of what had occurred until the time came and went when it was customary for the nurse to bring the little toddler down to meet her father on his return home for tea. Fearing nothing of what was in store for them, the young couple went up, arm in arm, to the nursery. On the floor the nurse lay, stabbed through the back, and on the child’s cot a sheet of paper on*which was scrawled, ‘Sam the Plover’s square at last.’ 7 ‘‘ Tt wasa terrible blow to them as it was, for they did not at first know who ‘Sam the Plover’ might be; but when they learned that that was the prison nickname of their one time friend, the ex official, their grief was more than doubled. : ‘From that moment to this, nothing has been heard of the child. ‘The parents are still living in Sidney, but are otherwise childless. Wealth has come to them, but neither has been the same since they discovered the loss of their baby, who, if living, would now bea girl of nearly twenty. Plover seems to have kept clear of the police ever since his escape, and it was gen- erally believed that he must have perished in the bush, so that if we may re- gard his statement as the truth, the man Wilton shot is the man who has been for fifteen years defying every law in the land.’’ CHAPTER IX.—A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT. Wilton listened to the story with more than interest. He had blamed himself severely when he first saw the man lying, as he thought, dead ; it had seemed to him such a terrible thing to slay a man as a recompense for a Eomicbooks |