I dedicate this “ower true tale” of the wilder aspects of Australian life to my old comrade R. Murray Smith, late Agent-General in London for the colony of Victoria, with hearty thanks for the time an...

My name’s Dick Marston, Sydney-side native. I’m twenty-nine years old, six feet in my stocking soles, and thirteen stone weight. Pretty strong and active with it, so they say. I don’t want to blow⁠—no...

Father was one of those people that gets shut of a deal of trouble in this world by always sticking to one thing. If he said he’d do this or that he always did it and nothing else. As for turning him,...

So the years went on⁠—slow enough they seemed to us sometimes⁠—the green winters, pretty cold, I tell you, with frost and hailstorms, and the long hot summers. We were not called boys any longer, exce...

“All right,” said I, “he must have got there a day before his time. It is a big mob and no mistake. I wonder where they’re taking them to.” Aileen shrugged her shoulders and walked in to mother with a...

“Now then, you boys!” says father, coming up all of a sudden like, and bringing out his words as if it was old times with us, when we didn’t know whether he’d hit first and talk afterwards, or the oth...

After we’d fairly settled to stay, father began to be more pleasant than he’d ever been before. We were pretty likely, he said, to have a visit from Starlight and the half-caste in a day or two, if we...

It was pretty late that night when we got home, and poor mother and Aileen were that glad to see us that they didn’t ask too many questions. Mother would sit and look at the pair of us for ever so lon...

The “big squatter,” as he was called on our side of the country, was Mr. Falkland. He was an Englishman that had come young to the colony, and worked his way up by degrees. He had had no money when he...

Well, away we went to this township. Bundah was the name of it; not that there was anything to do or see when we got there. It was the regular upcountry village, with a public-house, a store, a pound,...

Now Jim and I had had many a long talk together about what we should do in case we wanted to signal to each other very pressing. We thought the time might come some day when we might be near enough to...

Warrigal left his horse at the edge of the timber, for fear he might want him in a hurry, I suppose. He was pretty “fly,” and never threw away a chance as long as he was sober. He could drink a bit, l...

We didn’t go straight ahead along any main track to the Lower Murray and Adelaide exactly. That would have been a little too open and barefaced. No; we divided the mob into three, and settled where to...

We got to Melbourne all right, and though it’s a different sort of a place from Sydney, it’s a jolly enough town for a couple of young chaps with money in their pockets. Most towns are, for the matter...

One blazing hot day in the Christmas week Jim and I rode up the gap that led from the Southern road towards Rocky Creek and the little flat near the water where our hut stood. The horses were tired, f...

George Storefield’s place, for the old man was dead and all the place belonged to him and Gracey, quite stunned Jim and me. We’d been away more than a year, and he’d pulled down the old fences and put...

When we got home it was pretty late, and the air was beginning to cool after the hot day. There was a low moon, and everything showed out clear, so that you could see the smallest branches of the tree...

I wasn’t in the humour for talking, but sometimes anything’s better than one’s own thoughts. Goring threw in a word from time to time. He’d only lately come into our district, and was sure to be promo...

Mr. Runnimall, the auctioneer, swore that the older prisoner placed certain cattle in his hands, to arrive, for sale in the usual way, stating that his name was Mr. Charles Carisforth, and that he had...

It took us a week’s travelling or more to get to Berrima. Sometimes we were all night in the coach as well as all day. There were other passengers in the coach with us. Two or three bushmen, a station...

What a different feel from prison air the fresh night breeze had as we swept along a lonely outside track! The stars were out, though the sky was cloudy now and then, and the big forest trees looked s...

Daylight broke when we were close up to the Black Range, safe enough, a little off the line but nothing to signify. Then we hit off the track that led over the Gap and down into a little flat on a cre...

I brought it out sudden-like to Aileen before I could stop myself, but it was all true. How we were to make the first start we couldn’t agree; but we were bound to make another big touch, and this tim...

“I go with you, Slick,” says Starlight, and he looked hard at all of us⁠—one by one. “I can’t, and I won’t, do anything else now; but don’t let me shut the door against Jim, or the old man’s going bac...

Our first try-on in the coach line was with the Goulburn mail. We knew the road pretty well, and picked out a place where they had to go slow and couldn’t get off the road on either side. There’s alwa...

Jim, by all accounts, had a great afternoon’s shooting, and was as pleased and contented as if there was nothing ahead that we need trouble about in the world. A little pleasure went a long way with p...

We did a little gold digging, and got the colour here and there, just enough to show us we might make a haul some day, but we couldn’t hit it good. We rode and shot a bit till somehow I got restless, ...

I was right in about a week, as far as being able to walk about and look after myself, but it was nearer a month before my arm was any manner of use to me. Starlight and father set it between them, an...

After the Ballabri affair we had to keep close for weeks and weeks. The whole place seemed to be alive with police. We heard of them being on Nulla Mountain and close enough to the Hollow now and then...

This meeting with Kate Morrison put the stuns upon me and Jim, and no mistake. We never expected to see her up at the Turon, and it all depended which way the fit took her now whether it would be a fi...

As everything looked so fair-weather-like, Jim and Jeanie made it up to be married as soon after she came up as he could get a house ready. She came up to Sydney, first by sea and after that to the di...

Jim and his wife moved over to the cottage in Specimen Gully; the miners went back to their work, and there was no more talk or bother about the matter. Something always happened every day at the Turo...

We made up our minds to start by Saturday’s coach. It left at night and travelled nigh a hundred miles by the same hour next morning. It’s more convenient for getting away than the morning. A chap has...

I got to Bates’s paddocks about daylight, and went straight up to the hut where the man lived that looked after it. Most of the diggers that cared about their horses paid for their grass in farmers’ a...

I’d settled in my mind that it couldn’t be anyone else, when he sat up, yawned, and looked round as if he had not been away from the old place a week. “Ha! Richard, here we are again! ‘Feeds the boar ...

A month’s loafing in the Hollow. Nothing doing and nothing to think of except what was miserable enough, God knows. Then things began to shape themselves, in a manner of speaking. We didn’t talk much ...

Now we had something to think about the time didn’t pass so slow. No end of things had to be looked after, you bet. What we were going to tackle was no foolish boy’s play; there was no use going at it...

“We done that job to rights if we never done another, eh, lad?” says father, reaching out for a coal to put in his pipe. “Seems like it,” I said. “There’ll be a deuce of a bobbery about it. We shan’t ...

We scuttled home pretty sharp after we mounted, and got back by dark easy enough. The road was rough, but father’s old mare could spin over stones and through scrub, up hills and down gullies, most li...

When we found that by making darts and playing hide and seek with the police in this way we could ride about the country more comfortable like, we took matters easier. Once or twice we tried it on by ...

This bit of a barney, of course, made bad blood betwixt us and Moran’s mob, so for a spell Starlight and father thought it handier for us to go our own road and let them go theirs. We never could agre...

We all pulled up at the side of the gully or dry creek, whatever it was, and jumped off our horses, leaving Warrigal to look after them, and ran down the rocky sides of it. “Great God!” Starlight crie...

Towards morning father went into a heavy sleep; he didn’t wake till the afternoon. Poor Aileen was able to get a doze and change her dress. After breakfast, while we were having a bit of a chat, in wa...

At last father got well, and said he didn’t see what good Aileen could do stopping any longer in the Hollow, unless she meant to follow up bushranging for a living. She’d better go back and stay along...

We mounted, and cleared then as quick as we could. We had wasted too much time, and thrown away a chance or two, as it was. Starlight and I said goodbye to Bella. Maddie wouldn’t show out again: said ...

Whatever put it into their heads I don’t know, but they started straight off, and never pulled rein till they got to a station belonging to a Mr. Hamilton. They were that savage at missing their tip w...

So that part of the work was chalked out. The real risky business was to come. I never expected we should get through all straight. But the more I hung back the more shook on it Starlight seemed to be...

A good many gentlemen and ladies that lived in the town and in the diggings, or near it, had come before this and had been dancing away and enjoying themselves, though the room was pretty full of digg...

Mr. Dawson drove pretty near the stand then, and they all stood up in the drag. I went back to Aileen and Gracey Storefield. We were close by the winning post when they came past; they had to go anoth...

“The Banner comes next,” says Starlight, tearing it open. “We shall have something short and sweet after the Star. How’s this?” “Starlight Again” “This mercurial brigand, it would appear, has paid Tur...

So Mr. Knightley stood up and faced them all like a man. He was one of those chaps that makes up their mind pretty quick about the sort of people they’ve got to deal with, and if there’s anything to b...

We ate well and drank better still at the lunch, although we had such a regular tuck-out at breakfast time. Mr. Knightley wouldn’t hear of any of us shirking our liquor, and by the time we’d done all ...

When we got the notion into our heads, we set to work to carry it out. We didn’t want to leave Aileen and mother behind. So it was settled that I was to go over and see them, and try and persuade them...

We rode along the old track very quiet, talking about old times⁠—or mostly saying nothing, thinking our own thoughts. Something seemed to put it into my head to watch every turn in the track⁠—every tr...

He shook hands with me and dad, threw his leg over Rainbow, took Locket’s bridle as if he was going for an easy day’s ride, and cantered off. Warrigal nodded to both of us, then brought his packhorse ...

The breath was hardly out of him when a horse comes tearing through the scrub on to the little plain, with a man on his back that seemed hurt bad or drunk, he rolled in his saddle so. The head of him ...

One day I was told that a lady wanted to see me. When the door of the cell opened who should walk in but Aileen! I didn’t look to have seen her. I didn’t bother my head about who was coming. What did ...

The months went on till I began to think it was a long time since anything had been heard of father. I didn’t expect to have a letter or anything, but I knew he must take a run outside now and again; ...

This is the author’s preface to the abridged one-volume edition published in 1889. —⁠S.E. Editor ↩ “Gibbers”: boulders. ↩ “Gin”: a black woman. ↩...