Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-06-20
than Jim Curtis, late stockman at wyal-

SOmC bAmC hd0 SiopecQ SluCc THESE
events, three months or SO, during which
We had heard little of the bushrangers
Many people thought that they had clear.
ed out of the country, which was patroled
In all directions by mounted police be-
longing both to New South Whales and
Queensland-the latter reinforced by
black crackers from the border force,
wild fellows, keen as kangaroo dogs, but
uncomfortable, except by their own of
fcers. Still, horses disappeared nysteri-
ously, and Thunderbolt and his boy
were said to have been seen at different
and relatively far distant points.
One blazing hot afternoon at the end
OF that summer I was riding quietly
along a mountain track. Is was so hot
that the very flies ceased from troubling
my horse and myself, and the black
crows, perehed in q tree near the carcass
of dead bullock, were sitting with open
beaks and dropping wings, was over
taken by g couple OF police troopers,
fine, dragoon-like fellows, well mounted
and armed with heavy revolvers. One of
them, McKane by name, sergeant and
late of the Irish constabulray, 1 knew
well, tall, good looking fellow, the beau
ideal of cavalrymau. The other 1 had
never seen before. | was glad of their
company; they were bound 70 our station,
so our ways lay together. We pulled up,
lii our pipes, had a drink of cool water
from the water bag l carried slung to my
saddle, just favored with something from
my flask and We logged on together. Of
course, we began to talk about the bush
rangers. The sergeant told me that they
had taken man who they were tolerably
sure had been a mate of Thunderbolt's
on the occasion of the bank robbery; he
was in possession of stolen horses, and
had a suspicious number OF sovereigns
about him, tut as TO Thunderbolt himself,
they were at fault. The small free selec-
tors and farmers would not, or dared
not, give any information; the bush tele-
graph was actively at work. Thunderbolt
and his boy were in all probability COM
fOrtably hidden somewhere in the ranges,
certain of timely information should the
police get upon their track. I told him
that three of our best horses had myster-
iously disappeared; one of them, the
Doctor, winner OF certain stockman's
purses, and hack races in particular, was
well known to him, and 30 most people
in the district, and we had lutte doubt as
to who had taken them. The Doctor was
a slashing chestnut, with great staring
white face, like Blair Athol, an animal co
be recognized a mile off amid a thousand
others.
So we rode on, yawning, mile after mile
under the hot sun, intending, when we
got off the stony track on the plain, where
the going was good, to canter on, so as TO
get home about the setting OF the sun.
We rode over a little stony rise and down
on to grassy fat, on which was feeding
little scrubby flock Of sheep, belonging
to one Peter White, who kept bush pub
lie house and store little further down
the road. Here, on the dusky track, we
very soon noticed, the Sergeant and /, the
hoof marks of three horses, one of them
sbod and quite fresh; then they had evil
IDENTIFY only just come on TO the road, or
else we should have noticed them sooner.
The Sergeant rode over 80 the boy who
was minding the sheep, but the convict
bred cab, with the Unborn dislike of his
race 20 policemen, was sulky, and said
that he had seen no one. This was lie,
for the horse tracks were on top of the
tracks of the sheep where they had cross
ed the road on their way TO water at the
creek which ran down the middle of the
fiat. So we pushed on a bit, thinking to
hear at Whi.e's, mile ahead of US, Who
the travellers might happen to be. We
rode across across'a shallow ford, starting
a great mob of white cock atoos, which
were drinking and bathing in the clear
water, and as we rose the opposite bank
came in sight, quarter of a mile from
US, of the clUmp of bush buildings which
made up Peter Whites establishment
"a long, low verandaed slab house, its
iron roof shining in the western sun, and
few bark and shingled huts, kitchen,
store and stable behind it, all lying snug
ly at the foot of the forest covered hills,
just where they touched the plain.
As we cantered up to the place, every
thing about If aeemed silent and deserted,
save that, at the saddle stand in front of
the public house veranda stood three
horses, one carrying a pack-saddle on to
which a fairhaired boy was busy in
stamping swag. And one of the
horses was the Doctor!
Instantly the scene changed. AS
sang out: "By the Lord Harry, that's
my horsar and the Sergeant stuck his
spurs into the big brown mare, we heard
the boy scream or shout some alarm, q
tall man rushed out of the door brandish-
ing something bright in his hand, sprang
On the old Doctor, and dashed away, close
ly followed by the boy, and leaving the
pack horse tied to the rail.
A shout from the Sergeant: "Come on,
sir, in the Queens NAME" and away we
three went after them, laundering down
the road, round the corner of the pad
dock fence, over the deep bank of the
creek, into the thick scrub on its far
bank, crashing through il, and up the
rough side OF the hill beyond. AS the
two raced over the bald bridge we saw the
man, against the sky line, throw out his
hand, and the boy swerved off to the
right; we never saw him again that day.
And then began furious chase-a race
for life and death. Hard riders we all
were in those days, hard riders after wild
scrub cattle and wilder horses, throug h
thick bush and over ranges, by sunlight
and by moonlight, bet never such a ride
rode IS that afternoon after a man.
seemed to feel the frantic passion with
which horse will gallop until he drops
in pursuit of his fellow horses.
We well knew that our horses could not
keep up the pace at which we we're going +;
We knew that the man we were hun ting
was familiar with every yard of the coun-
try we we're riding over; we knew that he
was flying for his life and would fight for
it; but we rode as the huntsman of old
may have ridden after savage beast, his
prey. Scrambling up hills, gathering
down declivities at reckless pace-for we
we were following the best stockman On
that country side-our horses laundering
over stones and bogs, my leader still
ahead of me; over ridge aud down gully
we galloped, the sergeant never losing
sight of the bush ranger, and keeping
well up.
Once we came down a slide made by the
timber-petters to send down their logs