Colonel Thorndyke's Secret

lover of humanity. Warders armed to the teeth were arranging gangs that were to go out to labor on the roads. Many of the co

the chief difference between the chained and unchained prisoners was that the latter were men of more timid disposition than many of their companions, and therefore less disposed to give trouble that would entail heavy punishment. But it was only the comparatively well conducted men who were placed upon road work; the rest were retained for work inside the jail, or were caged in solitary confinement. Each morning a number, varying from half a dozen to a dozen, were fastened up and flogged, in some cases with

"I will brain a warder, and get hung for it. One can

in England, and I am not going to put my head in a noose until I have wip

ould get killed, but no one would mind that if there was but the remotest chance of getting away. The question is what we should do with ourselves when we were once outside the prison. Of course I know that there ar

some South American port, sell our capture, and make our way home to England. If we were not strong enough to take her, we could hide up on board her; we should be sure to find some fellow who for a pound or

ere are more than that, because there are a lot of white livered cusses among them who would inform against us at once, s

over the others because of their reckless indifference to punishment and their defiance of authority. Few of the men knew each other's r

ssibility of a mutiny, there had been fights of a desperate kind. Four or five dead bodies had been found and thrown overboard, but as none would testify as to who had been the assailants none were punished for it; and so the str

mong the others. This ascendency had been maintained after their arrival by their constant acts of insubordination, and by their apparent indifference to the punishment awarded them. At night t

no shelter save among the blacks, who were always ready for a reward of tobacco and spirits to hand them over at once to the authorities. The case had but slightly changed since the settlement began to grow. It was true

from home, instead of going to America. As a whole the system worked satisfactorily; the men were as much prisoners as were the inmates of the jail, for they knew well enough that were they to leave the farmers and take to the bush they would rema

en who had hitherto been the most troublesome, and they put it down to the unusually severe floggings that had been inflicted on the two most refractory prisoners in the establishment. When in the prison yard or at wor

ry. In the first place, they had taken into their confidence a dozen men on whom they could absolutely rely. Beyond this they had approached the others singly, beginning by hinting tha

strangled the next morning; no one will know who did it. Even if he succeeded in eluding the vigilance of his comrades at the time, it would soon be known; for if indulgence of any kind was shown towards one man, or he was relie

the soldiers, in the first place; then we shall join that night, and drive off all the cattle and sheep from the settlements, take possess

rs pursue us, we will fight them; but as there are only three or four companies of them, and we

of tremendous size, as big as a dozen Englands, they say, and each party will fix a place it fancies, where there is good water and a river with fish and so on, and we may live all our lives comfortably, with just enough work to raise potatoes and corn, and to watch our stock increasing. Anyhow, we might calcu

ed of the life they have only to come down to Sydney, hide up near the place on some dark night, and go down to the port, seize a ship, and make off in her, compelling the officers and sailors to take them and land them at any port they fancy, either in Chili, Peru, or Mexico, or, if they like, sail west and make for Rio or Buenos Ayres or one of the Wes

willingly, the prospect of relief, even should it only be temporary, being too fascinating to be resisted. Some joined against their will, fearing that a refusal

ailed to discover who were the perpetrators of these murders; and even when ever

what he was to do. The date had been determined by the fact that the time which they had been sentenced to wear irons had terminated the day before, and their unusual

the convicts, but as the first blow fell upon his shoulders there was a loud yell, and simultaneously the whole ranks broke up, and a number of men sprang upon each of the warders, wrested their muskets from them, and threw them to the ground. Then there was a rush towards the Governor and o

as did the guards near the gate. As comparatively few of the convicts had muskets, they began to waver at once.

hore, and were passing the convict prison when the firing broke out. They were at once halted, and ordered to load, and as th

d. "It is too late to draw back now.

, and numbers of the convicts fell. Their two leaders, however, and some twenty of their followers, keeping in a close body, rushed at the line of soldiers with clubbed m

to their huts, those who had arms throwing them away. Dotted here and there over the square were the bodies of eight or ten convicts and as many warders, whose skulls had been smashed in by t

istance was attempted, the sight of the soldiers completely cowing the mutineers. When the bodies of the convicts that had fallen were counted and the roll of the prisoners called over,

peaking the truth. All had been sworn in by one of two men, and knew nothing whatever of what was intended to be done that day, until aft

nd brought in; altogether, twelve were still at large. Among these were the two leaders. The next day six of the prisoners were tried and executed. The rest were punished only by a reduc

ether after they had broken

said as they ran through. "Thos

o far as we are concerned, which is all we care a

outstripped their pursuers, hampered as

such a bad thing that the

ave bolted directly they saw them. As it is, I fancy only about a dozen have got away, perhaps not as many as that, and they are all men that one can rely upon. One can feed a dozen without difficulty-a sheep a day would do it-and by giving a turn to each of the s

, and the soldiers would not be likely to pursue us very far. In a week or so, when we can assume that matters have cooled down a bit, we can come down again. We know all the shepherds, and even if they were not disposed

se, we shall have to decide later on whether it will be best for us to try and seize a ship, all of us acting together

lled. In the next place, most of them were brought up as thieves in the slums of London, and will have no more idea of roughing it in a country like this than of behaving themselves if they were transported to a London drawing room. Therefore, I am pretty sure that at the end of

tions were to be asked we should be likely to find ourselves in limbo again in a very short time. So I am all for working on our own account, even if the whole of the others were ready to back us; but, of course, we must keep on good terms with them all, and breathe no

ct gangs that worked on the road were in the habit of leaving their tools. On the way there the two men killed a couple of sheep from a flock whose positio

n Wild?" a voice sai

eman Dick i

ad begun to think that th

alive, you may take your oath.

. I think that that

ur purpose. Has anyon

eep growl in

ke a mile, you had better handle them by turns. We will strike off into the bush and put a

hen they turned off from the road, and taking the

n called Captain Wild said. "You had better

ed in a tone of consternation. "I don't suppose w

"Get a heap of dried leaves here first, th

soon as a small pile of dried leaves was gathered the Captain broke a cartridge and sprinkled half its contents among them, and then dropped t

and, supported by four sticks, was laid across the fire. Three other similarly laden spits were soon placed beside i

s mouth with the back of his hand. "Now one only wants a

e you satisfied wi

ly. There would have been a lot of difficulty in finding food if we had all got away, and some of those mealy mouthed fellows would have been sure to go back and peach on us at the first opportunity. A doz

hundred miles, and wait there till matters have settled down. They will never take the troops out that distance after us. Then we can come back again, and hang about the settlement and take what we want. The wild blacks don't come near there, and we shall be safer in pairs than we should be if we kept together; and of course we could meet once a week or so to talk over our plans. We must borrow some whisky, flour, tea, tobacco, and a few other items from the settlers, but we had better do without them for this trip. I don't want to turn the settlers against us, for they have

ust at present nothing would suit me better than to get so far away f

ing neither tobacco nor spirits, the party very so

d at one of the farms farthest from Sydney. Here they found a flock of a h

sharply. "We don't want to do an old pal any harm, and when you wake up in the morning and

shut the door, and the convicts started for

eeping the sheep at a trot before them, and cont

a water hole we shall have to give up this idea of going and camping in the bush. My mouth has

er the risk, they would have to return to the settlements unless they could strike water. As they were sitting moodily round the fire they we

e of the men were on the point of jumping to their feet. "The men

rinned and rubbed their stomach

we want water;" and he held up his hand to his mout

to their legs again, and half a mile away the party arrived at a pool in what in wet weather was the bed of a river. A sheep

more sheep, and at daybreak the next morning they started again for the interior, feeling much exhilarated by the piece of luck that had befallen them. They traveled for four days more, and then, considering that the soldiers had ceased their p

es together. Every horse that could be spared was lent to the military, who formed a mounted patrol of fort

ned themselves, as we have done, to taking a sheep when they wanted it, and behaving civilly when they went to one of the houses and begged for a few pounds of flour or tea, the settlers would have made no great complaint of us; they know what a hard time we have had, and you can see that s

e shot yesterday, and in another week we shall all either be killed or caught. There is nothing for it but to clear out. I am against violence, not on principle, but because in this case it sets people's backs up; but it cannot be helped now. We must get a couple of horses to ride, and

iver, follow it up till we find a tidy place for a camp, and stop there for three or four months, then come back again and keep ourselves quiet until we find out that a ship is going to sail; then we will do a night among the farmhouses, and clean them out of their watches and money, manage to get on board, and hide till we are well out to sea. We must get a fresh fit out before we go on board; these clothes are neither handsome nor becoming

her agreed, "and I am quite sure the soone