IT was eight o’clock before I made up my mind to rouse Flaxman out of the heavy sleep of exhaustion that he had fallen into; for, eager as I was to set out upon the task of bringing Moira back once more to the station, yet I felt that it was most essential he should obtain all the rest that was possible under the circumstances, to enable him after the hard doings of the last few hours to cope with the equally hard ones that lay before him. I well knew that the man was not physically strong; in fact, he was almost fragile, and unless I took the greatest possible care, it was most probable that I should have two invalids upon my hands instead of one.
In the meantime I ordered the best breakfast that could be obtained in the place, settled the bill, and arranged with the landlord for the use of a horse in place of the one that I had so wilfully ridden to death two nights before; then I felt that all was ready, on my side, for the earliest possible start.
The storm had ceased in the small hours of the morning, and now the sun was blazing away once more in all its intensity; and as I looked across the wide street and noticed the heat shimmering over the roadway, I knew that the sooner we started the easier and pleasanter our journey would be.
I then made my way to the bedroom, and, after considerable difficulty, managed to get Flaxman into a wakeful condition and told him that we should start to ride back to the station directly after breakfast; then left him to his toilet and went to my meal.
I had only just commenced to help myself to the good and substantial fare that had been placed before me, when the landlord entered the room and came over to my table. After enquiring how I had found Flaxman after his night’s rest, he brought a chair close to mine, and I could plainly see that he was preparing to be communicative.
“Mr. Tregaskis,” he said, lowering his voice so that the other occupants of the room could not overhear him, “I want to have a talk with you before Mr. Flaxman comes down. I don’t usually take much interest in other people’s affairs, but seeing that both of you gentlemen have always treated me so well, and, if I may say so, we have always been good friends, I think that it is my duty to give you some information that may be of service to you.”
“Indeed, that’s very good of you, Johnson,” I replied, nervously I confess, for, somehow, I could not but feel disquieted owing to recent events, which had not a little upset my nervous equilibrium.
“I don’t know about that,” he said; “but this I do know, that when a man treats me decently, I do the same for him; but when one has to deal with the sharp gentry, one must act accordingly.”
This latter remark was made with a mysterious air, and with such sincere feeling that I knew the man had a desire to do me a good turn, but was not quite certain how I should take his interference in my affairs; therefore, to put him quite at his ease and more than that, to hear what he had to say--for to tell the truth I was extremely desirous of doing so--I gave him to understand that I was deeply interested, which indeed I was; whereupon, in response to my advances, he opened up his subject to me.
“No doubt you wonder what on earth it is I am about to tell you, but as a matter of fact both you and Mr. Flaxman have an interest in the affair, and therefore I’m going to give you all the information I can, and when you have heard what I have to say, you can discuss the matter with me, or not, as you feel disposed; but, whatever results, I shall always feel that I have done my best for you, sir.”
“Upon my word, Johnson,” I said, “I hardly know what to say. That you have some valuable information to impart to me, I feel convinced; but you whet my curiosity to such a degree that I really must ask you to gratify it. What on earth is it?”
“Well, without beating about the bush any further,” he said, and he leant quite near to me and almost whispered; “there’s some conspiracy going on in which you and Mr. Flaxman are concerned. Of that much I am certain. From information, slight ’tis true, but still information I have gathered, I feel I am right and it is my bounden duty to tell you.”
“Well, for Heaven’s sake, man, do start; I am all attention; but what it can be I’m at a loss to understand.”
“Do you remember the cove that came in and sat smoking last night in the parlour with us? A new chum we voted him. The chap who wore gloves.”
“Of course I do. He told us he was a new chum, and one could easily see that he was.”
“Humph! Well, he isn’t, that’s a certainty. At first I thought he was, but when I got to bed and began to think deeper about it, I felt I had met the man somewhere before, but for the life of me I couldn’t think where. I puzzled my brain over it again and again, and at last fell asleep with him on my mind, and the most curious part of the whole affair is the way that I did recall who he was and where I last saw him.
“I wonder if you remember about eight years ago the notorious bushranger, Black; Captain Black he used to call himself. He received six years’ imprisonment for some blackguard job. At that time I was living in the district he frequented, and I can well recollect the exciting moments we spent when the whole neighbourhood was trying to secure him; but, somehow or other, he always managed to avoid capture, until at last he was given away at his hiding-place by one of his pals, who afterwards turned King’s evidence. Then the police took him. I was present at his trial, and can remember, as if it was only yesterday, the calm and collected way that he stood in the dock and took his sentence. Whatever other faults he has, there is no doubt whatever the man had great pluck.
“But, by Jove, he used to give us some shocking frights. It seems only a day since the time when I used to lie awake at night straining my ears for every sound, which I felt would be ‘Black’s gang,’ as they were called. However, we were never favoured with a personal visit from the lot, although the next station was. But then, all this is now ancient history. The gang got lagged, and serve ’em right. We’ve no use for a dirty lot of blackguards like his. They used to say he was well-born, a gentleman, and I firmly believe they were right, at least, judging from appearances, for I never saw a criminal turned out so well in my life, and I’ve seen a few.”
I replied that I had known all about him, and well I did, for he was a veritable Ned Kelly, and the wonderful adventures of the man made a very great impression upon me at the time; I remember I used to picture myself as one of the police who took him, and I envied them their task in securing one of the shrewdest and most dare--devil of criminals.
“It’s very curious that just after he had left this morning, I should go to my desk to find a letter I had placed there, and the first thing my eye lighted on was this old paper, giving, as you will see, the whole account of his trial and a portrait of Captain Black.”
With that he produced an old and soiled newspaper, and, after carefully smoothing out the creases with his fat red hands, placed it before me. In the text I saw a crude portrait of the criminal. It might have been the man Vandergrave, or anyone else, as far as I was able to judge, but the landlord was so certain that he was correct in his assertion, that I did not argue the matter with him.
“All this is very interesting, Johnson,” I said, “but for the life of me I cannot see what this man’s history can have to do with me, or Flaxman, unless you think we were members of his beautiful gang. I conclude from what you have told me that you are certain this chap Vandergrave is really Black, and that he has some scheme on hand in which we are mixed up in a mysterious way.”
“That’s it, Mr. Tregaskis, that’s it. It certainly sounds a fairy tale, but it’s true, nevertheless, and I will tell you my reasons for thinking so. He ordered his breakfast early this morning, for he was anxious to get along quickly, he said. When sitting down to it, he began in a casual way to pump me with regard to you and your station. How far off was it? Was it a large station? How many hands do you employ? What sort of a house was it? What was the best route to take to get to it? I, of course, innocently enough, told him, as we are justly proud of your station.
“Those few enquiries led to a great many more, and at last he asked me whether there were any ladies up at the station. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Oh, I only ask out of idle curiosity,’ he replied. ‘I remember that when Mr. Tregaskis was settling his difference with the Irish gentleman last evening the latter apologised for speaking of the lady as he did. I assumed, therefore, that a lady does reside at the station.’
“‘There may be, or there may not be,’ I answered. ‘If there is,’ I said, ‘it’s Mr. Tregaskis’s business and not mine; I don’t worry myself enquiring into other folk’s affairs,’ for by now I was getting anxious at being asked all these questions, and it made me a bit suspicious, for I felt that the joker wanted to know more than was good for him.
“‘I was only curious to know,’ he answered. “By the way, what is Mr. Flaxman like? I once knew a Flaxman at Cambridge, a tall fair man. Of course it may not be my man, but it’s rather an unusual name, and it would be very interesting if I were to meet an old friend in the wilds of Australia.
“‘Is he married?’ he went on, and I told him I knew very little about Mr. Flaxman, but that if he wanted to know anything more he could ask the gentleman himself, as he had arrived late last night to see you, and, by Jove, directly he heard this, he went as white as a sheet, and it was some minutes before he recovered; then he made some small excuse, paid his bill, ordered his horse, and went, and in my opinion he was in a devilish hurry to get off. From his talk and enquiries I’m quite sure the chap’s not what he sets up to be; in fact, my suspicions were aroused by his hands. If that chap ain’t done time, well, I’m not the landlord of this blooming place, that’s all.”
“Now, that’s very strange; I noticed his hands myself last night. It’s most curious that he should take such a huge interest in a man he’s never met before,” I said.
Then I remembered the way he worked the conversation round the night before until the landlord told him we were the largest station owners in the district, and it suddenly flashed across my mind that he knew Flaxman’s name without my having told him.
The more I thought of it the more peculiar and mysterious it seemed. Recent events had caused me to be careful; and now I wondered if this man was in any way connected with the red-bearded villain who had assaulted both Moira and Flaxman.
I told the landlord what Flaxman had told me, how he had been attacked by the rascal, but I was careful to leave out any mention of Moira or her disappearance.
When I had finished my story the landlord asked for a description of the assailant.
“As far as I could gather from Flaxman he is very tall, about six feet three, with a red, ragged beard, immensely broad and powerfully built, roughly dressed, and looks like a sundowner or a horse thief.”
“My word, that’s Mike O’Connor’s description to a tee,” gasped the landlord in a state of immense excitement. “He’s one of the worst blackguards in Australia, been in choky I don’t know how many times for bushranging, horse stealing, and devil knows what other crimes. We hoped we’d got rid of the beast for good, as he hasn’t been seen in these parts for five or six years.”
“Perhaps he’s been in prison.”
“Most likely, and I wish he was there still. Just fancy, Mike O’Connor! By gad, you’ll have to keep your eyes skinned if he’s on the job.”
“Yes, judging from poor old Flaxman’s experience, I shall,” I replied, putting down my cup and pushing my chair back ready to rise from the table. “Somehow, Johnson,” I said, “I cannot help feeling that this chap Vandergrave, or Black, or whatever he chooses to call himself, and O’Connor, have some design upon us of which we know nothing. But what the reason is, Heaven alone knows. The whole thing is a mystery, and it is incumbent upon us to fathom it; and, by Jove, I intend to do so, whatever the consequences.”
With that I rose from the table, filled my pipe, and was about to leave the room when Johnson followed me to the door.
“Mr. Tregaskis, look here. If at any time you want assistance, will you let me know, and I’ll be with you post haste? I tell you quite candidly, I don’t like the look of things. I know these precious beauties too well to suppose they mean no harm.”
“Thanks very much indeed, my friend,” I replied. “If the occasion arises, which I pray it may not, you may be sure I shall send you a message.”
“And I’ll be there for a certainty,” he replied warmly. “But, in the meantime, are you going to tell Mr. Flaxman anything of what I have told you?”
“No, I don’t think I shall just yet. I may tell him as we ride to the station. Will you please let him know I shall be back before he has finished his breakfast?”
I then strolled out of the house and turned my steps in the direction of the police station, for I was anxious to hear what the superintendent had to say on the subject of the recent occurrences.
As I passed along the footway, smoking my pipe, and trying to analyse the situation in my mind, I suddenly found myself face to face with the most useful man of any that I could meet under the circumstances. His name was Braithwaite, and he occupied the important position............