The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-05-15

and the pistol had been fired so close that
the powder had set his shirt on fire. Poor
Jim Curtis dead face had no look upon it
either of pain or fear, only slight ex-
preston of establishment; his beard and
hair were powdered with the yellow dust
OF the waffle flowers.
1t was nearly dark as we caught our
tired horses. Mexican said that he was
closing with his man, though his mare was
nearly done, when the poor old Doctor
stopped and whinnied, as horse will do
sometimes when woefully distressed.
Thunderbolt jumped off and ran for the
water hole and the sergeant shot the old
horse, as he passed him, to cut off his
enemy's chance OF retreat.
was very sorry for the poor old horse.
He must have done a severe journey that
day, or we should never have caught our
man. And we were, both of us, anything
but jubilant as we led our horses slowly
back through the bright moonlight, soon
hearing the "cooee" of party which,
with our policeman, was In search of us.
The latter had wisely pulled up, early in
the chase-neither he nor his horse was
fit for such gallop. We had come four
miles as the crow flies over very rough
ground, looking rougher still in the moon
light. With some trouble we took a cart
into the range and brought the dead man
in the morning to Whites. After the
necessary inquiry, we buried poor Jim,
rolled up in a sheet of newly-stripped
bark, the bushman's coffin, under a big
tree on the bank of the creek.
And the boy? His history Is soon told.
Peter Whites history of Thunderbolt's
visit was to the effect that the bushranger
had walked quietly into the bar and IN
formed Peter as to who he was-which
1 N.-a- oil
showing revolver by way of creden-
tial After having a drink Thunderbolt
ordered White to pack up lot of Stops
and grocery, including, to the publican's
mystification, some women's stockings
and other female belongings, and had
! handed out one parcel to the boy, who,
pistol in hand, was minding the horses
and keeping guard outside. As for the
| two or three men about the place, they
had far too much respect for revolvers and
perhaps sympathy for the wielders of
them to do other than keep carefully out
of sight. Then our arrival changed the
aspect OF affairs and / have tried to de-
scribe what ensued.
Not many days after all these things
had happened there came in one night to
| the homestead of New England sheep
station, not very far--as distances are
| the bushrangers death, an old shepherd,
a grabbed and ancient relic OF convict
days, who was shepherding a flock near
the foot of the main range. This old fell
| low went to the store where he, after the
manner of shepherds, invested in tobacco,
boots, soap, HOloway's pills, and other
! commodities popular among those who
follow sheep, offering, to the astonish-
ment of the jackaroo who was acting
storeekeeper to pay for the same in gold.
| And when the elder man was questioned
by the Younger as to where he had OBJ
| tanned coins so rarely seen in station
stores, the elder replied with the aphor-
ism that them as axes no questions gets
| told no lies"
However, the glass of rum exhibited by
the master, elected, in conversation, the
| fact that that morning young chap had
ridden up to the old man, out on his run,
giving him some money, and bounced
| him" into going into the head station,
some fourteen miles away, telling him to
| be sure and bring out a newspaper and
"news about the rangers" the young lel
| low promising to look after the sheep in
| the meanwhile"
81 axed him why he didn't go hisself,"
| said the old man; but he just ups and
chucks me two quid, and tells me to mind
| my own business and look alive"
! The old man was given a newspaper and
was of before daylight. 4 note was sent
TO the nearest inspector OF police.
The inspector, with the wounded SER
| geant and a trooper, called at our place
| on his way to see into the matter, and i,
pretty sure that we were on the track of
| the bushranger's boy, consented to accom-
| pany him, and took with me two mounted
black bovs-good crackers.
Arrived at the sheep station where the
boy had been seen, we had but little diff
Guilty IN picking up the track of a shod
horse, which led us deep into the heart
of the mountains, deep among gullies-
| which bore marks of being filled with
snow in winter-and over stony ground,
where the boys were sometimes at fault.
We camped upon the track that night,
serenaded by wild dogs. Next day the
| bows puzzled out the iron-shod tracks
slowly, sometimes over very bad ground,
until, in a gully deep among hills, we
found the track of hobbled horses; further
on, the horses themselves. At the end of
! the steep, blind gully was a wall of rock,
| under which an old log stockyard, patched
up newly, and probably originally erected
by cattle stealers: close to 1t a small hut
of slabs and bark, with the usual big
CHIMNEY III tu6 Gnu. IHC uOuIs lIduC vi
green hide, was closed; no smoke came
! from the chimney; nor was there any
sign of life or sound of living thing to be
seen or heard about the silent place save
that, close TO the door, a saddle lay
propped against the slabs, and fresh horse
tracks were plentiful about the yard.
Cautiously and quietly we rode up, as
men who expect to see strange things
they know not what. easily pushed open
the door of the hut, which was fastened
slightly with a peg, bush fashion, and
presently l saw, lying on the low couch, a
| figure covered to the chin with a white
blanket, a fair-haired corpse, the calm,
waxen face of her who had been Mrs.
Hayes pretty handmalden. my fellow
traveller from Sydney, Jim Curtis sweet
heart or wife, Thunderbolt's boy-poor
Mary Lawson. A newspaper lay on the
| floor, and on the little bark table near was
laudanum bottle and pannikin.
We buried her hard by, under a cur
rajang tree, in the lonely New England
mountain ranges.
Cheap Doctoring.
IN Y Wepkly1