Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-02-24
Story of an Australian Detective

and have been one for some years; ] was
formerly one in Paris, and l was employ.
ed as such in the Hyde Park Exhibition
of 1851. Since then | have been in va
rious parts of the world; in fact there
are very few of the force that haven't
knocked about the world a good deal
However, at last have settlsd in Aus
tralia, and hope my rowing is ended.
| never had but one crack case entrust-
ed to my care | have sometimes track
ed thieves from the diggings into the in.
terror aud found them boundary riders
on stations, or clerks that did not keep
their accounts straight, and found them
bullock driving up country, but these
were small affairs; pair of bracelets
soon settled such but once | had mat
ter to find out on the very slightest in
formation received, which required all my
skill and all the resources Of my long ex-
perience.
Some four years ago there lived about
a mile down the Glenelg River beyond
the bridge, an oldish man, who was re-
ported to have made somewhere a good
pile" He was a thorough hermit, sell
dom stirred ant, except TO go 10 the store
AMI buy few necessaries, for which he
always paid, and never was known to
beat down the price Of anything. This
naturally led to the surmise that he had
plenty of money. Near him lived anoth-
er single man in slab and bark hut he
was a shoemaker by trade, but in a small
township liks this his customers were but
few, and bis livelihood precarious. He
was known to be as poor as his neigbbor
was rich, and was as much dependant on
the iorbearance of bis creditors as the
other was on his ready money. Be
tween these two solitary men, living on
the river side there sprung up strange
ly intimate friendship; always after
breakfast, often through the day, and reg
ulsrly at night, they had their pipe TO-
gether, sometimes with Il papnikin of tea
only, at others with glass Of grog.-
There was a dim mystery hanging over
the supposed rich mans history; where
he had come from, or how he had made
his money, no one knew, and his churlish
ways forbade any one to ask him be-
and the shoemaker were all the world
TO each, and beyond that neither seem
ed to care anything. In this uniform
but curious mode Of life, weeks and
months passed away; the only differ
ence observable being, t b at although
Stevens the shoemaker, bad no more
customers than formerly, he now seem
ed to have money always at command,
and not only paid off his old scores but
bad money for all he needed.
One morning however-it was in the
winter season, and the Glenelg was roll
ing its turbulent waters muddy and swift,
down to the seattle old mans hut was
not opened; wood splitters passing by
observed that the o d hermit was not
summing himself and smoking his Equity "
as usual, and that night Stevens came
running into the township, greatly ex>
cited and calling on Mr.. T. at
the inn, told him that not having seen
old Jeffrey all day he bad forced an en-
trance into the hut, but that the old
man was not there, and what bad be-
come of him he did not know. A po-
liceman, for H is a police station.
was Immediately sent to take charge of
the hut until the magistrates should
make inquiry. Some days after the in
quiry was made, b ut nothing came ofI
it, further than the suspicion that JEFF |
frey had met with foul play. Still moths
ing was proved, nor could be proved |
until the body could be found; for, &C.
centric as the old man was, who could |
say he b ad not got up in the night,
and suddenly started from H as be
had made his appearance there?
AS soon as intelligence of this affair
reached headquarters at Melbourne the
matter was placed in my hands, with
instructions to exercise my own discre-
ton in my proceedings, absolving me
from all disgrace if l failed. and prom
ising me fl00 if l succeeded. My
plan was adopted after much consider
alton, and have no reason to regret |
the steps took, as will be seen in the |
sequel. took the little steamer Vest
era, Capt. Lucas, to Portland, 260 miles,
and after stopping day or two at
Macs hotel, l started by the mail for
the far interior After a three days
journey / arrived at H as a trav-
eler looking for job Of work had
a folerably heavy swao and this with